Food, Electricity and Fuel Prices Still Increasing

Details

Economy

Thursday, 20 December 2012 02:30

By press release

Antigua St. john's - The Statistics Division in the Ministry of Finance, the Economy and Public Administration on Monday released the Consumer Price Index for November 2012.

Year-on-Year Analysis

In November 2012, the release states, the annual rate of inflation was measured at 2.1 percent.

It says price changes in the Food Category show a 3.5 percent increase compared with November 2011, and states “This was primarily due to increases in the prices of Dairy Products, Fats and Oils, and in Bakery and Cereal Products.”

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The CPI statement reveals that “the average price of evaporated milk increased from $3.04 to $3.66; cooking margarine increased from $6.37 to $7.14; and packaged white flour increased from $4.49 to $5.00.”

It says “the Fuel and Light index increased by 6.2 percent over the same period due to an increase in the fuel variation rate from 73 cents in November 2011 to 80 cents in November 2012.”

It explained further that “Energy, a special index that measures price changes for electricity (fuel variation rate), gasoline at the pump, and LPG, increased by 4.6 percent over the period.”

The Statistics Division says “This is the largest increase for the Energy Index since July 2012.” It notes that “The index declined sharply in August, September and October 2012 due to the decrease in the price of gasoline from $15.80 in July 2011 to $14.99 over the same three-month period in 2012.”

Month-to-Month Price Changes

There was a 0.3 percent increase in the All Item Index between October 2012 and November 2012, but there was no change in the Food Index, the release states.

The Fuel & Light Category recorded an increase of 3.4 percent due to an increase in the fuel variation rate from 76 cents in October 2012 to 80 cents in November 2012.

Alcoholic Drinks and Tobacco recorded an increase of 0.3 percent, which is attributed to an increase in the average price for imported rum.

The Other (or Miscellaneous) Index recorded a decrease of 0.2 percent, which the Government statisticians attribute to average price decreases in toilet paper and toilet soap.

Methodology

The All Items Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the main measure of what is commonly called inflation, or headline inflation. It measures the change in prices, on average, from month to month -- and from year to year -- of the goods and services bought by most households.



Prices are collected monthly and quarterly from supermarkets and other suppliers of goods and services. The pattern of household expenditure on these goods and services is derived from a regular Household Budget (or Expenditure) Survey (HBS). The prices and spending patterns (known as weights) are then combined to calculate the price indices for groups of goods and services and for the All Items Index. These indices (plural for index) are based on expenditure patterns in 2001.

The All Items (or Overall) index, with all of its 11 component indices, is published each month.

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