The new price monitor aims to prevent extreme price hikes…

Dubai Economy (DED) has been working to ensure that local supermarkets and pharmacies do not hike their prices of popular items. Face masks and hand sanitiser have become highly in demand in recent weeks, but the DED clarifies that this should not inflate the prices.

The DED has shut down several retail stores for failing to follow pricing regulations and restrictions. To make things clearer, a new guideline has been created to help outlets understand the frames within which they can price everyday items.

Each day, a price monitor will reveal the minimum and maximum amount that each store should charge for household groceries. This includes face masks, hand sanitiser, rice, flour, sugar and salt, as well as daily produce such as dairy, meat and fruit and vegetables.

See below the price monitor for Tuesday March 31:


Anyone who discovers a store selling outside of the designated pricing remit will be able to report them to the DED online. The DED said in a Tweet that the initiative is ‘to support consumers and enable them to know their rights in the current exceptional circumstances resulting from the outbreak of the new coronavirus’.

Dubai Economy has previously stressed that consumers should avoid panic-buying where possible. It also reassured residents that there’s no need to stress about the ‘availability of hygiene essentials such as face masks, gloves and sanitisers as there is adequate stock of these at leading supermarkets across the country’.

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