Prices taken from Singapore Department of Statistics in its latest press release on the Retail Sales Index and Catering Trade Index and from the recent issues of the Monthly Digest of Statistics Singapore.

9 prices to track in 2009
These 9 items have cost more in the last year


By Zhen Ming


WHAT you see above is my personal list of nine grocery items whose prices have shot through the roof as of October last year.

There are of course some items whose prices have declined.

With the Chinese New Year buying binge coming up, prices of my nine items have to be watched.

Then, there's the eating-out.

For me, eating out with the extended family is a pleasurable weekend experience.

These days, however, this social-gastronomic experience can be quite a budget-buster for the middle class.

Take the price of an average meal at a typical fast food outlet in October (barely three months ago, when there was financial mayhem in global stock markets).

For each meal then, you had to fork out an astonishing 17.8 per cent more than a year ago (based on the latest-available price comparisons).

Put differently, for the same amount of money spent on seven trips to a typical fast food outlet a year ago, you could afford to make, at best, six.

And the well-to-do are also not spared in this industry-wide price hike.

For those who prefer fine dining, their average up-market meal at a typical restaurant now costs 11.8per cent more.

Those who eat at hawker centres and food courts, however, can take comfort that prices there rose by only 9.1 per cent in the 12 months ending October.

The good news for everyone on a tight budget for 2009:

Eating in can now be just as pleasurable as eating out - more so, ever since the price of food and beverages, on the whole, dropped by a surprising 6.3 per cent over the same 12-month period.


Source: The New Paper, Sun 04 Jan 2009