By Robert A Emmanuel
An increase in the cost of transport services, particularly air transport, has accounted for more than 26 percent of the overall August inflation rate, according to the Statistics Division in the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report.
Overall, inflation rose by 6.6 percent in the last year ending August 2023, which was a larger increase than the five percent for July annual statistics.
According to the CPI, transport services rose 34.2 percent with air transportation rising by 39.5 percent.
Consumers also saw a rise in food prices with a 3.6 percent surge in the last 12 months. Bread and cereals alone rose by 9.1 percent which accounted for almost 40 percent of this increase.
Milk, cheese and eggs accounted for the second largest contribution to food increases with 22.8 percent of the overall food inflation rate. Those items grew 10.4 percent over the 12-month period.
Meanwhile, vegetables saw a slight decrease in inflation with prices dipping by 1.3 percent in August after increasing 9.5 percent in July.
The decline was attributed by the Statistics Division to an 11.7 percent decline in the cost of potatoes, while another notable decrease was in meats and meat products which also slightly declined by 1.3 percent.
Other indexes with notable increases over the last year include restaurants and hotels who saw an increase in their prices by 30.8 percent, communication services increased by 13 percent, and clothing and footwear saw an uptick of eight percent.
For the monthly report (July to August), inflation rose by only 1.4 percent after increasing less than one percent for the previous month.
August’s food prices decreased by 1.6 percent with vegetables declining 5.3 percent and fruits declining 3.7 percent.
