Similarly, the index for items such as sugar, khandsari and gur, that form part of the manufactured products (not food articles) have show either a 1 per cent decrease or have remained static since the beginning of this year.

But for a 3 per cent increase during the last week of January and first week of February where the price index for edible oils increased by 3 per cent, there has been virtually no change in the prices of edible oils since January.

Similarly, even the price of rice has virtually not changed since January this year. There has, however, been a stiff increase in the price of onions since the beginning of this year. For the week ending February 24, these prices increased by 6 per cent after having declined by 2 per cent the previous week. The price of onions continuously rose during the first three weeks of January this year with a peak increase of 16 per cent during the week ending January 27. It is interesting to note that since the beginning of the year, there hasn't been any major change in the price index of cement virtually remaining stagnant since January.