DTI issues price guide for school supplies

As classes are set to begin later this month, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has released a price guide to help consumers in the purchase of school supplies.

- LOUELLA DESIDERIO

The price guide includes specific brands of notebooks, pad paper, pencils, ballpoint pens, crayons, erasers, sharpeners and rulers.

For this year’s price guide, the DTI said prices of 68 percent or 80 out of the 117 stock keeping units (SKUs) remained the same, while eight percent or nine SKUs had decreased prices.

Meanwhile, 24 percent or 28 SKUs showed price increases.

In this year’s price guide, notebook prices range from P11.80 to P52.

The prices of Grades 1 to 4 pad paper vary from P9.50 to P61.

Intermediate pad paper, on the other hand, is priced from P13.80 to P48.75.

For writing materials such as pencils and ballpoint pens, the prices range from P11 to P33 and P3 to P33, respectively.

As for crayons, consumers may purchase a box of eight colors for as low as P12 (regular) to as high as P65 (jumbo).

A 12-color pack costs P32, while the price of a 16-color pack ranges from P24 to P83 and a 24-color pack is priced from P34 to P114.