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The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) approved the increase of the suggested retail price (SRP) for 82 basic necessities and prime commodities.

In a radio interview on Sunday, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said only 82 out of more than 200 basic necessities and prime commodities have increased their SRPs. The increases was announced on Friday.

According to the DTI, products in the new SRP list include bread, canned fish, potable water in bottles and containers, processed milk, locally manufactured instant noodles, coffee, salt, flour, processed and canned pork, processed and canned beef, vinegar, fish sauce (patis) and soy sauce.

The guide includes additional stock keeping units such as Bareta Bar White (360g) and Bareta Bar FabCon (360g).

Also included are laundry soap, detergent, candles, toilet soap, and batteries.

Lopez said the price increase approved by the DTI is just "minimal" as it will not exceed 10 percent.

"When they (manufacturer) submitted their request, we still have (a) process for consultation so that we will not follow the increase that they want because based on our computation this is the only increase that we should allow," he said.

"The price increase that we allow for this request only ranges from two to five percent or less than ten percent. That is the only increase that we allow for them to adjust from their losses," he added.

The DTI noted that 71 out of the 82 products adjusted their prices from two percent to 10 percent, but it noted that the price increase is still less than the global price movement of raw materials.

"To illustrate, prices of major raw materials like tamban (for canned fish products), mechanically deboned meat (for processed meat products), buttermilk (for processed milk), and palm oil (for toilet paper and instant noodles) increased by 0.56 percent to 32.14 percent. Additionally, fuel prices went up by 28.84 percent," it explained.

DTI said 136 other goods retained their SRP based on the list it issued on January 27. Robina Asido/DMS