Its a hot Ramadaan day , I am walking through the bustling market of Burtinle, a dusty town in Puntland somalia. The market is a hive of activity, traders selling toys, clothes, homeware and food. It is surprisingly not noisy for a busy market, the lack of energy of the fasting population might have something to do with this.

Burtinle Market

I move from store to store noiseyly asking about prices of stuff I have no intention of buying. Inflation is a hot topic accross the globe, I wanted to gauge the cost of everyday items.As I make a mental note of prices, I notice what appears to be a trend - all prices are to the nearest tenth.

Bottled water sells for 0.30 dollars or 'point 3' as the locals call it. Polishing your shoes is $0.20, coffee is $1.50, macawis is $11 etc. To test this theory I ask excitedly the price of few other items at different stores, restaurants and street hawkers. My hunch is confirmed, you will not find anything priced at $0.23, $0.17, $2.42 or oven $0.07 prices are to the nearest tenth. Simply put , traders do not have anything priced between $0.3 and $0.4 despite there being a whole ten pricing points between these two numbers. Do the traders realise this ? . The availability of 'loose change' did not necessitate this 'round pricing' as no physical currency changes hands, all transactions are carried out through mobile money (Sahal).

I decide to test whether the traders are aware of price points between two tenths. I ask a trader to give me a discount on a item that costs $0.50, he is reluctant but I push a hard bargain. He says ' I cant give this out for point 4 ($0.40) '. Ok then can he do it for less than 'point 5' ($0.5) I ask . He looks confused, 'I told you I a can’t sell for point 4 ($0.40)’. The logical progression of prices according to this trader is in 10 cent intervals - a climb down from 0.50 (point 5 ) can only be 0.40 (point 4). Has it occurred to him that customers might be happy with $0.47 or $0.44 etc.

Social scientists amd economists should carry out research into pricing trends and the effect of dollar pricing without physical lower donimination dollar coins. There is also an opportunity for traders to tap into psychological pricing. Changing the 'point 1, 2, 3..' reference to ' 10 cent, 20 cent , 30 cent' will help prices between tenths roll off the tongue.