Tuesday, December 11, 2007 Prices of prime commodities increase, DTI says By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE regional office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) claimed last week that prices of some prime commodities have increased by more than 10 percent in a series of price monitoring conducted by the department.
Paciente E. Cubillas, senior trade and industry development specialist of the Consumer Welfare and Trade Regulation Division of the DTI (CWTRD-DTI), said Friday that prices of flour, sugar, and milk went up due to the decrease in production.
"The increase in prices of these products were not just monitored this month, but a few months back, usually prices of these products go up towards the end of the year, afterwards, babalik na naman sa dati," Cubillas said.
He added that not just prices of milk, flour, and sugar have increased, but also some agricultural products particularly vegetables.
"Vegetables are not covered in our monitoring, but we observe that as early as now, vegetables which are used in foods usually prepared for noche buena have also increased like carrots," Cubillas said.
Meanwhile, Cubillas assured the public that the increase in prices of some commodities is closely monitored by the DTI.
"We are trying to determine that the change in prices of the products is not a result of manipulation, that's why we intensify our price monitoring so that we can protect our consumers from unfair practices in the market place," Cubillas said.
The Philippine peso hit a 7-year high against the dollar and the Korean won fell in listless Asian trading on Monday as dealers waited to see how deeply the Federal Reserve would cut US policy rates this week.
Most other Asian currencies remained stable against the US dollar, the latter supported by non-farm payrolls data on Friday that showed a steady unemployment rate and somewhat tepid gains in US jobs.
The Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) was suspected of intervening to buy dollars on Monday, persisting in its efforts during the past few weeks to rein in the currency's rise.
