Prices of Hawker Food and Common Household Groceries in Last Five Years

Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) whether the Ministry tracks the prices of (i) popular local hawker foods in both air-conditioned and non-airconditioned food centres over the last five years; and (ii) common household groceries; (b) if so, what are all the specific items in these categories; and (c) how have the prices of these items changed each year over the last five years.

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: The Department of Statistics (DOS) compiles the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which tracks the price movements of goods and services consumed by resident households. The CPI basket includes local hawker food items sold in both air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned cooked food establishments, as well as common household groceries.

Prices of more than 100 types of hawker food commonly consumed by resident households are obtained every month from hawker food centres, coffee shops and food courts throughout Singapore. These hawker food items include, but are not limited to, noodle-based dishes (eg, fish ball noodles, mee goreng and mee rebus), rice-based dishes (eg, chicken rice, economical rice, nasi briyani and nasi padang), local delicacies, desserts, beverages and cut fruits. The changes in the prices of hawker food captured in the CPI basket over the last five years can be found in Table 1 below.

For common household groceries, the prices of more than 1,000 types of food items from major retailers, including wet markets, supermarkets and provision shops, are tracked in the CPI. These items include rice and other cereals, meat and poultry, dairy products and eggs, and vegetables, which are commonly consumed by Singaporeans. The price changes in the last five years for all retail food items captured in the CPI basket, and for selected food items commonly purchased by households can be found in Table 2 below. DOS also publishes the average retail prices of these selected food items in its publication "Monthly Digest of Statistics Singapore", which can be downloaded from its website.