Residents of the capital city will breathe easier as prices of many essential commodities have gone down, according to an analysis by the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
The month-on-month price analysis showed that prices of essential commodities like rice, red lentils, edible oil, sugar, ginger, onions and garlic, which shot up earlier due to the coronavirus outbreak and Ramadan, had now dipped considerably.
However, the prices of eggs and potatoes have gone up, the analysis showed.
The TCB prepared the report analyzing price charts from the capital’s twelve kitchen markets located at Shahjahanpur, Karwanbazar, Badamtali, Sutrapur, Shyambazar, Kachukhet, Moulvibazar, Mohakhali, Uttara (Azampur), Rahmatganj, Rampura and Mirpur-1.
According to the TCB report, different types of fine grain rice varieties, such as Miniket, Jeerashail and Najirshail, sold this past week from Tk54 to Tk65 per kilogram. Prices ranged from Tk56 to Tk68 a month ago.
A month ago, large-sized red lentils sold at Tk80 to Tk95 one kg, but now sell at Tk65 to Tk75 per kg.
Medium size red lentils sold on Saturday from Tk100 to Tk110 per kg. Prices were from Tk105 to Tk115 per kg last month.
The price of edible oil has also dropped, as TCB data showed five-litre bottles of soybean oil currently sold at Tk465 to Tk520, which was Tk470 to Tk530 a month earlier.
A litre of super palm oil is now selling at Tk75 to Tk80, which was Tk80 to Tk85 a month ago.
A kg of sugar was sold at Tk65 to Tk70 a month ago, but now is sold at Tk60 to Tk65.
The price of local ginger dropped by almost 25%, as it currently sells at Tk100-150 per kg. The price was Tk125-185 per kg a month back.
Local onions now sell at Tk40 to Tk45, down from Tk45 to Tk50 previously.
Local garlic was sold at Tk100 to Tk130, a month ago. It came down to Tk90 to Tk120 per kg.
Egg, potato prices remain high
Although prices of almost all essential commodities have gone down, the prices of eggs and potatoes have been going against the trend.
The price of a dozen eggs was Tk75 to Tk80 a month ago, but currently eggs sell for Tk90 to Tk100 a dozen.
The price of potatoes also shot up by 30% in a month. A kg of potatoes which sold at Tk20 to Tk22 previously now sells at Tk28 to Tk30.
