THE CONSUMERS’ Association has spotted a number of unjustifiable price increases in the market.
Announcing the results of an investigation carried out into the prices of basic-need products, the Association pointed out that 70 per cent of the products and services checked showed no unnecessary increases.
But there was a 12.3 per cent section of companies that increased their prices over 10 per cent.
The announcement offered the specific example of dentists, a section of whom were found to have increased their fee for a scale and polish procedure by more than 10 per cent.
“An investigation needs to be carried out into the matter to find out why these increases occurred,” the head of the association, Petros Marcou, said yesterday.
Kebab owners were also named and shamed, with one five owners increasing their prices for souvlaki, by over 10 per cent.
Markou posed the question: “Seeing that pork prices haven’t increased, what has? The pitta breads?”
And even though Cypriot coffee has remained at the same price, 10 per cent of caf?s and coffee shops were caught selling their coffee at 10 per cent more.
All these findings will now be examined by the Consumers Association and they will soon announce the names and companies that are making unjustifiable increases.
They will add the justifications offered by each company and they will call on the public to be the judges on whether to use the shops and services again.
The association was especially incensed with dentists and pathologists, who showed acute unwillingness to participate in the investigation.
Today, the Commerce Ministry’s Commission for the Protection of Competition is also expected to announce the findings of its own investigation into the matter.
Meanwhile, the Statistical Service yesterday announced that the General Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) had increased by 5.67 per cent in 2007 compared to 4.33 per cent year before based on 2005 prices. The government research unit set inflation at 2.3 per cent.
Specifically, the HICP during September 2007 recorded an increase to 2.3 per cent compared to 2.2 per cent in September 2006 and 2.2 per cent in August 2007.
“For the period October 2006-September 2007, the HICP recorded an increase of 1.7 per cent, while the increase recorded for the period January-September 2007 is 1.8 per cent,” read the relevant announcement.
The most significant increases during the period January-September 2007 were observed in the categories of food and non-alcoholic beverages (5.6 per cent), education (5 per cent) and health (4.5 per cent).
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