Sales of certain essentials including sugar, powdered milk, pulses including lentil, onion, potato, garlic, ginger, green and dry chillies have gone down substantially in recent days as their prices have shot up significantly within a short span of time, traders said.

The price of sugar has more than doubled in the last six months hitting between Tk 62 and Tk 64 per kilogram (kg). Average sugar price ranged between Tk 30 and Tk 32 per kg in September last year. But the price hit as high as Tk 70 a kg yesterday at neighbourhood grocery shops.

Prices of onion rose by 50 percent, potato 30 percent, garlic nine percent, and broiler chickens 13 percent within just a month, according to the daily monitoring report prepared yesterday by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).

Prices of lentil, eggs, palm oil, flour, fish (ruhi), beef and mutton have shot up between 3 to 9 percent yesterday than what the prices had been on March 4, the TCB report said.

Daily essential price monitoring report prepared by the state-run trading agency is sent to the Prime Minister's Office, all the ministries concerned and to other important government offices regularly.

Prices of some essential commodities including, lentil, powdered milk, soybean and some other commodities are still volatile because their supply depend on imports. And the cost of import has gone up as the taka lost its value by over six percent against the US dollar in the last two months.

According to traders, while some companies have already adjusted the prices of their powdered milk, some others are mulling to increase the same.

The price of a popular brand milk powder, Dano, rose by Tk 30 per kg in just one week. The price of 500 gram plastic pack milk powder ranged between Tk 185 and Tk 190 on the retail market yesterday, which was between Tk 170 and Tk 175 a week back.

"It has become very difficult to budget the household expenditure as prices of almost everything are rising but my income is not," said Anjumanara Begum, a banker who lives in Mirpur.

"I need at least 4kg of sugar a month for my five-member family but I will buy only 2kg for this month as the price has abnormally gone up," she added.

According to the TCB report, the price of potato was between Tk 10 to Tk 12 a kg yesterday, the price of which ranged between Tk 6 to Tk 7 a kg during the same period last year, a 70 percent rise.

Onion price was Tk 10 a kg just a month ago, which is now selling at Tk 17 a kg. The price of a quarter dozen eggs was Tk 15 a month back, which is now selling at Tk 17.

Lentil was selling at Tk 58 a kg yesterday but the price was Tk 48 a week back. Garlic was selling at Tk 80 a kg, the price of which was Tk 70 a week ago.

"People consume more when things are cheaper but they tend to buy less when prices go up," said Abdul Matin, a retailer at the Mirpur-6 kitchen market. He also said sales of some essential items like sugar, lentil, and moog dal have gone down substantially after the price hike.

Meanwhile, the government yesterday could not launch open market sale (OMS) of sugar properly at Tk 41 a kg as announced by the commerce ministry.

In a bid to stabilise the market, the government on Sunday decided to expand the OMS and sell a ton of sugar in each of all the 90 wards in the capital daily from Tuesday.

TCB officials said they could not send sugar till 3:30pm yesterday. When asked, a top official could not mention the number of a single ward where the OMS took place though he claimed that sugar was sent to some of the wards in the afternoon.

Sugar price is still on the rise and it might go up further as its supply on the wholesale market is not adequate and the price is still fluctuating, wholesalers said.

According to Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), cost of living rose about 10 percent in 2005 as prices of essential items saw a sharp rise during the last year.