To what extent was your everyday livelihood affected by rising prices at major supermarket chains during the continual inflation last year?
The answer is contained in the Consumer Council's annual supermarket price survey on a basket of 200 top-selling items in the three major chains - CRVanguard, ParknShop and Wellcome - across the territory.
Much to the relief of the hard-pressed consumers, the extent of the 2014 supermarket price increase, on aggregate average, was a very moderate 1.8% over the preceding year 2013.
The increase though small is nevertheless twice the aggregate average increase of a low 0.9% in 2013 (after 2 consecutive years of high inflationary price increases of 5.1% and 6.8% as shown in the Council's annual supermarket price survey in 2011 and 2012 respectively).
It compares favourably if benchmarked against the 2014 Composite Consumer Price Index which recorded an overall rise of 4.4% or 3.4% in food alone (excluding meals bought away from home).
Frequent supermarket shoppers, however, should take heed that aggregate average price increase does not imply that average prices of all 200 items surveyed rose by the same level at 1.8%.
As revealed in the survey, in fact, some nearly 10% (19 items) of the goods in the basket were up by a double-digit of 10% or above - which is far above even in comparison with the 2014 Composite CPI of 4.4%.
Furthermore, the magnitude of price changes of the different items under the same product group could vary substantially - in some cases by as much as 20% or more.
So depending on the types of products that you habitually purchased over the year, you could be hit by supermarket price increases far in excess of the aggregate average of 1.8% in 2014.
For purposes of analysis, the items under survey were broadly divided into product categories (13) and sub-divided into product groups (45).
The findings of the survey actually contain a wealth of information in shopping tips for the price-savvy consumers.
According to the survey, the aggregate average prices of over two-thirds of the product categories (9 out of 13) rose from a minimal 0.045% to a notable 6.7% last year. Leading the price hike were: hot/powdered drinks (6.7%), dairy products/eggs (4.9%), milk powder/baby products (4.1%).
Three product categories were shown to come down in aggregate average price, namely, alcoholic drinks (-0.1%), prepackaged bread/cakes (-0.6%), and staple food (-3.5%). One category under "others" remained unchanged in aggregate average price.
On the sub-divided product groups, the analysis showed an even wider spread of price increases ranging from 0.2% to a significant 15.2%.
Sharing the dubious distinction of being at the top of the price surge with double-digit increases were: evaporated/condensed milk (15.2%), and butter/margarine (11.4%). Also among the top 5 in price rise were: a newly-added product group marketed as nutritional powder (9.7%); juice/juice drinks (8.9%); and instant coffee (8.7%).
10 product groups, on the other hand, had their prices slashed from -0.2% to -6.4% on aggregate average. The groups with noticeable decreases included: carbonated drinks (-4.1%), prepackaged cakes (-4.4%), and edible oil (-6.4%).
Pet food was the only product group with unchanged aggregate average price.
The good news is that although nearly 10% of the items in the basket (19 out of 200) had their average prices increased for more than 10% in 2014, most were non-staple food such as 2 evaporated/condensed milk (11.7% and 19.4% respectively); one 3-in-1 instant coffee (24.2%); 2 yoghurt/yoghurt drinks (11.3% and 13.9% respectively); one nutritional powder (12%), etc.
Infant formula continued its price rise unabated in 2014 with an aggregate average price increase of 3.4%. But one item in this product group actually went up by a high 8.3%.
Prices of staple food were on the whole stable - recording a slight aggregate average increase of 0.7% in rice but a remarkable aggregate average decrease of 6.4% in edible oil.
Among the 9 rice samples, only 3 had their average prices raised from 0.3% to 10.4%. The remainders saw their prices down from 0.2% to 1.7%.
Edible oil, on the other hand, which scored the highest aggregate average price drop of 6.4%, had all but one of the average prices of the 8 oil samples down from 2.5% to 13.3%. The one exception rose in average price by 3.1%.
The survey also showed that substantial price change variations, by difference of 20% or more, could exist within the same product group, for instance biscuits (from -1.7% to 18.2%); instant coffee (0.3% to 24.2%); wine (-13.3% to 7.3%).
Supermarket shoppers will do well to shop wisely by comparing prices of different brands and different shops. It pays to do so as clearly evidenced in the annual supermarket price survey.
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