The HCM City Department of Finance has announced that the price of poultry meat sold under the city's price stabilisation programme would drop by 2,000 to 6,500 dong (VND) per kilo.

Companies that participate in the programme will cut the price of industrial-bred chicken from VND90,000 to VND83,000-85,000 per kg.

Meanwhile, the price of duck has also fallen from VND64,000 to VND62,000 per kg.

Nguyen Quoc Chien, head of the department's Price Division, attributed the price decline to the price of materials input for poultry breeding has been cut by three to seven per cent. Poultry sales have been falling.

Under the city's price stabilisation programme, participating companies have to reduce the price of the price-stabilised goods when the input cost of price-stabilised goods falls by five per cent.

The price of these goods must be 10 per cent lower than market prices.

The department estimates that, for the rest of the year, the supply of poultry will be abundant, as breeders have increased the number of poultry and the price is expected to be stable.

The department is also considering cutting the price of eggs under the price stabilisation programme.

The prices of several kinds of goods, including milk products, other foods and cosmetics, have been falling since early this month because of the government's macro-economic stabilisation policies, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper has reported.

The depreciation of the US dollar against the dong has caused the prices of several imported goods to fall.

A representative of the supermarket chain, Co.op Mart, said many milk suppliers had reduced the price of their products by three to five per cent over the past two weeks.

Nguyen Phuong Thao, director of Maximark Cong Hoa, said her supermarket had received price-reduction information from suppliers for several products, from foods to cosmetics.