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Abu Dhabi /Dubai /Fujairah: A 36 per cent hike in the price of basic commodities in less than a year has added to the heavy burden of many families across the country, struggling to make ends meet, according to figures compiled by Gulf News.
Jeannine Fischer, a South African housewife and a mother of one who has been living in Dubai for two and a half years, said that the drastic food price hike coupled with rocketing rents, are forcing many people to seriously consider leaving the country.
"Our monthly food bill has almost doubled in one year and products such as meat are continuing to go up in price so there is a need to closely monitor the price of basic commodities.
"This increase coupled with the rent increase is pushing many people to leave the country as they can no longer bear the burden," she said.
Products such as vegetable oil has increased by some 80 per cent, chicken by 66 per cent, while the price of rice has more than doubled in the last year, according to a Gulf News regular price check in one of the leading hypermarkets.
Indian mutton rose by more than 64 per cent in the last one and a half years.
Budget
Rashid Al Affani, a Moroccan trainer, has felt the pinch of the price hike although he has only been in Dubai for six months.
"The price of 500 grams of chicken legs have gone up Dh2 in only a few days and my monthly food bill has increased by some 30 per cent since I came," he said.
Syed Noushad, a 46-year-old Indian expatriate with three children, said his monthly grocery bill has shot up to between Dh1,500 to Dh1,800. He remembers that last year his grocery bill was Dh1,000.
"When we went shopping earlier we never checked the prices of things. We now make it a point to check everything carefully so as not to overshoot our budget," he said. "Our quality of life is getting worse as I also have to account for school fees, which are increasing," he said.
Abdullah, an Emirati government employee with four children and eight grandchildren, said they used to cook more than what they needed, to donate the food to the poor. "Now we have reduced the amount of food cooked," he said.
"We usually have a number of guests, so we only cook large amounts when they come to visit us," he said. "Rice prices have especially risen," he said.
A police officer, who did not wish to be named, said his relatives in Abu Dhabi have joined with other large families to shop in Qatar for their basic needs. "They buy in bulk everything from rice to tomato sauce," he said.
"I know that rice has gone up more than 50 per cent compared to last year," he said. A five kg bag of basmati rice is today selling at Dh22.7 compared to Dh15 last year.
Asma, a Pakistani housewife, said she has noticed that Emirati women are not filling up trolley loads of foodstuff like they used to earlier.
"I see that the women now have a list of things they need," she said, whereas earlier they would go aisle to aisle picking up packages and dropping them in the trolley.
Gas
Nabeel Ebrahim, an Iraqi consultant engineer living in Fujairah, said the price increase in basic commodities, such as bread and gas, has left a noticeable effect on their spending.
Mohammad Al Arabi, an Eritrean businessman living in Kalba said that family expenses had doubled over the last year.
"The major increase has been in gas prices and the government should monitor prices more tightly. The price of medium sized cylinders has shot up to Dh90 and for large families - such as ours - that is bound to cost us a lot," he said.
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