St John’s Antigua, April 1, 2025. The Statistics Division, under the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Governance releases the CPI for Dec 2024.
Year-on-Year Analysis
The Consumer Price Index for the twelve months ending December 2024 increased by 5.4%, after rising 6.4% in November. Likewise, the All Items Less Food and Energy index rose 5.2% over the last twelve months.
The Food Index rose 4.5% over the last twelve months with the Vegetables index continuing to impact the rising increase. The index rose 8.9%, accounting for almost half (46.5%) of the twelve-month Food Index increase. Within this category, two sub-categories accounted for 98.2% of the overall vegetables price increase. The indexes were: Fresh and Chilled Vegetables increasing by 18.8% and the index for Frozen, Preserved, or Processed Vegetables and Vegetable-based Products increasing by 4.0%.
Six of the nine sub-categories contributed 53.4% of Food Index change: Bread and Cereals (10.2%), Milk, Cheese and Eggs (10.1%), Meats and Meat Products (9.7%), Fruits (8.8%), Food Products NEC (7.9%) and Fish and Seafood (6.6%).
Core inflation or the All Items Less Food and Energy index rose 5.2 % over the past twelve months. Similar to the November the index continues to be driven by four categories. The Miscellaneous Goods and Services Index maintained the largest increase of 21.8% followed by Restaurants and Hotels (+20.9%), Communication (+11.9%), and Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics (+10.9%).
Month-to-Month Price Changes
The Monthly Consumer Price Index declined by 0.8% in December 2024 after rising 1.5% in November. The decline was predominantly driven by a 4.3% decline in the Index for Transportation. The index for Transport by Air (Airline Fares) declined 15.4% impacting the decrease in the Transport Service index of 12.6%.
The index for Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages had a marginal decrease of 0.8% over the one month. The Food index decreased by 0.9% as eight of the nine food groups’ indexes recorded declines. Five of the nine food groups recorded declines above one percent. The index for Food Products N.E.C. recorded the largest decrease of 2.2% followed by Fish and Seafood (-2.0%), Milk, Cheese and Eggs (-1.7%), Oils and Fats (-1.4%) and Sugar, Jam, Honey, Chocolate and Confectionery (-1.2%).
The index for All Items Less Food and Energy decreased 0.9%. The decrease was also affected by declines in the indexes for Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco (-0.8%) and Actual Rentals for Housing (-0.3%). All other remaining indexes remained unchanged except for Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance and Miscellaneous Goods and Services which rose (+0.3%) and (+0.1%) respectively.
—- END —-
Methodology
What is the consumer price index (CPI) measuring and how is it done?
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 are based on expenditure patterns in 2006.
The All Items (or overall) index, with all of its twelve (12) component indices, is published each month. For a detailed account of the methodology used in calculating the CPI, please call the Statistics Division.
Copies of the CPI for Dec 2024 can be accessed on the Division’s official website www.statistics.gov.ag
December 2024 Monthly CPI Publication: