Prices of Essential Goods in Malé Rise 7.8% in a Year as Meat Jumps 22.6%

Prices of essential goods in Malé were 7.79% higher in September than a year earlier, according to the Maldives Bureau of Statistics. Meat cost 22.6% more and vegetables 21.4% more.

The bureau’s Essential Commodities Price Index, published on 11 October, rose 1.69% from August to 124.13 points. The index is set at 100 for November 2022.

It tracks the prices of 96 products in Malé, using 2,549 price quotations collected each month. Food makes up 70.94% of the index, beverages 14.20%, personal care products 8.43% and cooking gas and other fuel 6.43%. It is a sub-index of the consumer price index. The bureau says it is designed to warn early of rising prices for essential goods and to be used in setting price regulations.

Rising Since April

The annual rate was −0.10% in January. It rose to 4.40% in April and 8.04% in June, the highest in the bureau’s published year-on-year series, which begins in November 2023. September’s rate was the second highest this year.

Change on the same month a year earlier, Malé, from the bureau’s September 2026 tables.

Meat prices rose 14.6% in April and a further 6.7% in May. The meat index has been between 134.76 and 137.06 points since May, compared with 112.13 in March. The bureau’s release does not give reasons for the movements.

Food, Drink and Fuel

Vegetable prices rose 9.80% from August to September and fruit prices 5.52%, the largest monthly increases in the index.

Over the year, milk, other dairy products and eggs rose 11.90%. Sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionery rose 10.24%, oils and fats 9.10%, cereals 2.92% and fish 2.55%.

Beverage prices were 6.36% higher than a year earlier. Coffee rose 23.04%.

The gas and other fuel group rose 12.48% in March and 0.53% in April, and has not changed since. It was 14.54% higher in September than a year earlier. Personal care products were 3.47% higher.

Broader Inflation

The bureau’s consumer price index for August, published on 28 September, rose 0.76% on a year earlier and fell 1.15% from July. In the same month, the essentials index was 6.26% higher than a year earlier.

Within the August consumer price index, food and beverages including fish rose 5.69% and transport 8.06%. Tobacco and areca nuts fell 26.17%. The bureau had not published consumer price figures for September by 18 October.

Government Measures

The Ministry of Economic Development, Transport and Trade said on 11 October that President Mohamed Muizzu had expanded the national list of essential items from 26 to 80. It said the State Trading Organization (STO) had begun importing them and was working with private agents to sell them at STO prices on inhabited islands.

The new list contains 20 kinds of fruit, 20 kinds of vegetables, 37 household food items and three non-food items, according to the ministry. In July, the ministry launched AguMagu, a mobile app that lists market prices.

On 14 October, the ministry reminded shops that goods must carry visible prices. The Consumer Protection Act allows fines of up to MVR250,000, as Maldives Today reported.

The bureau’s schedule puts the next essentials index, for October, on 9 November.