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NewsDay

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Family basket goes up

Business
THE Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) says the family basket went up by $6,99 to $598,04 by the end of July 2018, due to fuel price fluctuations, anticipation of salary adjustments for civil servants and seasonal consumption patterns.

THE Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) says the family basket went up by $6,99 to $598,04 by the end of July 2018, due to fuel price fluctuations, anticipation of salary adjustments for civil servants and seasonal consumption patterns.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

In a statement last week, CCZ said the food basket increased by 4,6% to $149,73 by end of July.

The price of detergents increased by 2,7% to $14,31, it said.

“As CCZ, we assume that the increase in the total figure of the food basket can be attributed to fuel price fluctuations, anticipation of salary adjustments for civil servants and seasonal consumption patterns,” part of the statement read.

“Consumers are urged to always seek a fair deal on the market place by ensuring that their rights are observed, as well as reporting any anomalies on the market place,” CCZ said.

Notable increases were recorded in meat where 1kg went up by 71c to $5,65, salt from 31c cents to 49 cents per 500g, bath soap from 83c to 90c, tea leaves by 18c to $1,95 per 100g and brown sugar from $1,94 to $1,98 per 2kg.

Other increases were in fresh milk, cooking oil, washing powder and cabbage.

Decreases were recorded in tomatoes, laundry bar, roller meal, flour and onions.

CCZ said the prices of bread and margarine remained unchanged from the price figure recorded in May 2018.

Where the products were not certified, consumers were urged to exercise their right to information by carefully examining if the products they were purchasing were well-labelled, packaged and provided with vital information such as manufacturing and expiry dates and ingredients used in the making of the products.

The consumer lobby group conducts a survey, during the first and the last week of every month.

The price of each commodity was arrived at by averaging prices gathered from retail outlets throughout the country.