Although this is from Kenya, it illustrates just how much bite high food prices have on consumer's spending power and their psychology, ie cutting spending in other areas.
------------------------------------------- Consumers hurt as prices skyrocket
By Elizabeth Mwai
Ms Grace Otieno, a mother of three, does not shop without prior planning.
As a retired banker, she is acquainted with financial management.
Nonetheless, Otieno, 58, admits budgeting is an uphill task considering unpredictability of commodity prices or "overnight increase in prices."
"Budgeting has become very difficult because every time we do, prices change," she says.
"Every time there is shortage of cooking gas, I fret because when steady supply resumes, the price goes up."
Life, she says, has become harder for a woman.
"One can no longer have those wild shopping sprees or even pamper herself with beauty products," she says.
The steep rise in inflation has taught her the art of saving. She says approximately 85 per cent of her savings go into buying food.
Otieno’s headache is worse on the prices of products a family uses every day: milk, bread, wheat flour and maize flour, and cooking fat.
"About three years ago, the price of a loaf of bread was Sh13. Today it has gone up to Sh30 and the size is smaller," she says.
This is despite Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) May reports that since the beginning of the year, prices of commodities and services have gone down. And so was the rate of inflation to the highly sought-after single-digit levels.
The bureau released figures showing overall annual inflation rate had decreased from 5.9 per cent in March to 5.7 per cent in April.
The slow-down in the 12-month overall inflation reflected a 2.1 per cent reduction in the price index for food and non-alcoholic beverages.
This, it stated, was the fourth consecutive decline, but the least drop since the 5.9 per cent was recorded in January.
The rate went down from 15.6 per cent in December last year to the 5.7 per cent in May.
Mr Lameck Abaga at a supermarket in Nairobi. Shoppers have to dig deeper into their pockets to buy essential goods like milk, bread, four and cooking fat. Picture by Maria Opondo But Mr Lameck Abaga, a businessman, has not felt the effect of the better times. His shopping remains a delicate balancing act.
"Every time I go shopping I have to dig deeper into my pockets," he says.
Abaga, 50, says prices of foodstuffs are unbelievably high for his meagre income and is always at risk of running into regular debts.
The father of three shops after every two to three days during which time he must carefully plan his money to the last coin.
"Things are bad but my children have to eat regardless of the cost," Abaga says.
From the beginning of the year, he says, the price of bread rose from Sh21 to Sh27 but his salary scale has not changed.
