NEARLY 190 hawker stalls have not increased their prices over the past six months, despite escalating costs and dropping sales, a survey released on Wednesday showed.

According to the second Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) cooked-food survey, 20 mystery diners found prices mostly unchanged when they revisited 237 non-air-conditioned food stalls over a three-week period from the end of November last year.

Prices were compared with a two-week survey in May last year, when the same stalls were visited for the first time.

The survey focused on one-person portions of five popular dishes - chicken nasi briyani, non-halal chicken rice, fishball noodles, three plain roti prata, and a plate of rice with two servings of vegetables and one of meat.

Prices of staple foods increased during the first six months of last year due to rising demand from growing economies including China and India, but dropped in the following months before slowly increasing again over the past two months.

Despite this, hawker meal prices remained largely the same.

Read the full report on Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.