2 dishes and 1 soup index is a reference index figure which measures and monitor the changes of general and regional food price in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. It is established by the Social Affairs Committee of The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) since January 2011. The index is based on the monthly market

random sampling In this statistics, quality assurance, and survey methodology, sampling is the selection of a subset or a statistical sample (termed sample for short) of individuals from within a statistical population to estimate characteristics of the who ...

done by the HKFTU and is published

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

ally on 'FTU Press'. Suggestions to

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

will be proposed by the

Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

Aims

The index aims to help

household A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

s to handle price

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

Measurement

The index is based on a diet of family size of 3–4 members, selects 7 typical and usual

food ingredients Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inges ...

as references to prepare two dishes and one soup, to see the cost needed. The seven ingredients includes: :1

catty The jin () or catty (from Malay ''kati'') is a traditional Chinese unit of mass used across East and Southeast Asia, notably for weighing food and other groceries. Related units include the picul (dan/shi), equal to 100 catties, and the tael ( ...

of Choi Sum :½ catty of

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...

tael Tael ( ),"Tael" entry
at the

Meigan Cai Meigan cai, also called mei cai, is a type of dry pickled Chinese mustard of the Hakka people from Huizhou, Guangdong province, China. Meigan cai is also used in the cuisine of Shaoxing (), Zhejiang province, China. The pickle consists of a who ...

:1 catty of

Grass carp The grass carp (''Ctenopharyngodon idella'') is a species of large herbivorous freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae, native to the Pacific Far East, with a native range stretching from northern Vietnam to the Amur River on the Sino-Russian ...

:½ catty of

Tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

:½ catty of

Potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

:½ catty of

meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...

:(1 catty= 16 tael = 605 g approx.)

Data

Data of 2011

The average price for buying 7 ingredients to prepare 2 dishes and 1 soup rose from HK$78.4 in January to HK$89 in December, increased by 13.7%. 14 out of 18

districts of Hong Kong Hong Kong is administratively divided into 18 districts. Each district has a district councils of Hong Kong, district council. District councils was formerly called district boards, for which the boards were established in 1982,Southern (Aberdeen Market) HK$93.5 ::

Wan Chai Wan Chai (Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: 灣仔) is located in the western part of Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is bounded by Canal Road, Hong Kong, Canal Road to the east, Arsenal St ...

( Wan Chai Market) HK$92 :: Central and Western (Smithfield Market) HK$92 *Cheapest Market ::

Sham Shui Po Sham Shui Po () is an area of Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, north of Tai Kok Tsui, east of Cheung Sha Wan and south of Shek Kip Mei (). It is located in and is the namesake of the Sham Shui ...

(Pek Ho Street Market) HK$84 ::

Wong Tai Sin Wong Tai Sin or Huang Daxian () is a Chinese Taoist deity popular in Jinhua, Zhejiang, and Hong Kong with the power of healing. The name, meaning the "Great Immortal Wong (Huang)", is the divine form of Huang Chuping or Wong Cho Ping (; c. 328 ...

(Ngau Chi Wan Market) HK$84 ::

Yuen Long Yuen Long is a town in the western New Territories, Hong Kong. To its west lie Hung Shui Kiu (), Tin Shui Wai, Lau Fau Shan and Ha Tsuen, to the south Shap Pat Heung and Tai Tong, to the east Au Tau and Kam Tin (), and to the north Nam Sang Wa ...

(Tong Yik Market) HK$85.5

Data of 2012

The average price of ingredients increased from HK$89 to HK$104.4 (+17%). *Most Expensive Market ::Southern (Aberdeen Market) HK$119.2 ::

Tseung Kwan O Tseung Kwan O New Town, commonly known as Tseung Kwan O ( zh, t=將軍澳新市鎮, j=Zoeng1 gwan1 ou3 san1 si5 zan3), is one of the nine New towns of Hong Kong, new towns in Hong Kong, built mainly on Land reclamation in Hong Kong, reclaimed ...

(Hau Tak Market) HK$109.7(+40.6%)

Data of 2013

The committee found that the prices of main food increased from to HK$109.3, by 14.2% compare to last year's index, higher than inflation. Among these, prices of beef and potato increased by 29% and 25.2% respectively. The

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

s with the highest increase are districts of

low-income Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse

families, especially

and

Tuen Mun Tuen Mun () or Castle Peak is an area near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in what is now Hong Kong and can be dated to the Neolithic period. In the mo ...

. *Most Expensive Market ::

Tsing Yi Tsing Yi (), sometimes referred to as Tsing Yi Island, is an island in the New Territories of Hong Kong, to the northwest of Hong Kong Island and south of Tsuen Wan. With an area of , the island has been extended drastically by reclamation alo ...

HK$120.45 ::Tuen Mun HK$104.5(+35.6%) *Cheapest Market ::

Tsuen Wan Tsuen Wan (formerly also spelled Tsun Wan) is a New towns of Hong Kong, town built on a bay in the New Territories West (constituency), western New Territories of Hong Kong, opposite Tsing Yi, Tsing Yi Island across Rambler Channel. The market ...

HK$95.8(+10.4%)

Data of 2014

The first seasonal Two-dishes-one-soup Index in 2014 showed a rise of price of the ingredient among the eighteen districts in Hong Kong. The Index was $105.01 in the first season of 2013 and $112.63 in 2014, meaning that the price of ingredient has raised 7.27% when compared to the

data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

of the same season in 2013. The Two-dishes-one-soup Index of the second season of 2014 reflect a slight relief of inflation as 9 districts out of 18 recorded a decrease in the price of ingredient, but 4 districts remained a 10% increase of food price. Meanwhile, Tung Chung Yat Tung Estate Market was found to be the most expensive one among the 18 districts, the food price of it has raised 14.12% from $109.1 to $124.5 :Two dishes one soup index 2014 (2nd season) HK$106.5 *Most Expensive Market ::

Lantau Lantau Island (also Lantao Island, Lan Tao or Lan Tau) is the largest island in Hong Kong, located west of Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, and is part of the New Territories. Administratively, most of Lantau Island is part of the ...

(Tung Chung) HK$124.5(+14.12%) ::Tsuen Wan ( Yeung Uk Road) ::

Sha Tin Sha Tin, also spelt Shatin, is a neighbourhood along Shing Mun River in the eastern New Territories, Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Sha Tin District. Sha Tin is one of the neighbourhoods of the Sha Tin New Town project. The new ...

(Central Street) In the third season of 2014, the average food price of the 18 districts decreased. The average food price of Ngau Chi Wan Market in

decreased sharply from $115.38 to $98.25, which means decreased 14.85%. Also, the Two-dishes-one-soup Index decreased 6.33% from $111.28 in the same season in 2013 to $104.24, this reflected a relief of inflation of food price in Hong Kong. :Two dishes one soup index 2014 (3rd season) HK$104.24 *Most Expensive Market ::Sha Tin (Central Street) HK$116.75 ::Wong Tai Sin (Ngau Chi Wan) HK$98.25''(−14.85%)''

Suggestions

*Develop local primary industry to stabilise food supply; *Open local live cattle market and introduce

market competition In economics, competition is a scenario where different Economic agent, economic firmsThis article follows the general economic convention of referring to all actors as firms; examples in include individuals and brands or divisions within the s ...

to stabilise meat price; *Introduce small enterprise in wet market to stop

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

; *Examine

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...

every year to narrow down

wealth gap The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It shows one aspect of economic inequality or heterogeneity in economics, economic heterogeneity. The distribution of wealth differs from the i ...

* Diversify the economy when develop new towns *Build more FEHD markets, cooked food centre,

flea market A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously owned (secondhand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal' ...

and

night market Night markets or night bazaars ( zh, 夜市) are street markets which operate at night and are generally dedicated to more leisurely strolling, shopping, and eating than more businesslike day markets. The culture of night markets originates from C ...

to relief citizens' burden in food purchasing * Co-operate with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

to stabilise food supply *Introduce

welfare Welfare may refer to: Philosophy *Well-being (happiness, prosperity, or flourishing) of a person or group * Utility in utilitarianism * Value in value theory Economics * Utility, a general term for individual well-being in economics and decision ...

policies such as Tax allowance, Electricity fee subsidy, etc.

References

{{Reflist 2011 establishments in Hong Kong Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions Society of Hong Kong Price indices