Relentless food price rises in UAE show no sign of abating

Dubai: The price of sugar has fallen by 16 per cent at the Union Cooperative in the last three months, according to Gulf News' regular price check, although the UAE is registering an inflation rate of more than 11 per cent.

The decrease of the sugar price at the cooperative following its decision to freeze the prices of 16 basic commodities at 2007 levels was not matched by Carrefour, were the sugar price increased by 24 per cent, according to the regular price check of family basics at Union Cooperative and Carrefour.

The price of rice at Carrefour has increased by some 30 per cent and although rice was one of the items of which the price was frozen, the cooperative usually visited by Gulf News did not have stock of the 5kg bag monitored by the paper.

The price of chicken has increased by some 10 per cent at Carrefour while the price at the cooperative remained the same.

However, although the freezing of the prices of basic items at the cooperative has helped reduce the inflation rate of Gulf News' food basket, it still registered a 27 percent increase, with fruits and vegetables increasing as much as 33 per cent in the light of skyrocketing oil prices.

Carrefour managed to keep an overall lower inflation rate as prices of vegetables and fruits increased by 26 per cent compared with the cooperative's 33 per cent.