Food prices are surging due to inflation.
The Consumer Council's annual supermarket price survey of a basket of 200 items of food and daily commodities showed a rise of 5.1% in their aggregate average price in 2011, which was closely in line with the Composite Consumer Price Index (5.3%) that reflects the overall inflation rate.
Based on the scan data of the price information collected from 3 supermarket chains - China Resources Vanguard, Parknshop Supermarket and Wellcome Supermarket, the 200 surveyed items were grouped into 12 main categories and further divided into 42 sub-categories for analysis.
Compared with 2010, the aggregate average price of the 12 main categories had their prices increased ranging from 1.5% to 11.7% in 2011. Among them, canned food/prepackaged soup (11.7%), pre-packed bread/cakes (9.9%) and dairy products/eggs (8.2%) topped the list.
Of the 42 sub-categories, 39 rose in aggregate average prices from 1.2% to 15%. Largest increase was found in the aggregated average prices of canned fish and butter, both with an increase of 15%.
The aggregate average price of adult milk powder has been soaring in recent years, with an increase of 12.3% in 2011. Aggregated average prices of other product groups that recorded notable double-digit increases included eggs (14.2%), pre-packed cakes (13.4%), canned meat (11.9%) and toothpaste (10.3%).
A mild increase of 1.9% was found in packaged rice products.
Only two categories of goods surveyed went down in prices. They were household cleaning products (-1.9%) and wine (-0.5%).
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- 2012.04.16