St John’s Antigua, March 12, 2024. The Statistics Division, under the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Governance releases the CPI for Jan 2024
Year-on-Year Analysis
The All Items Index increased 7.3% for the twelve months ending January 2024, a larger increase to a 3.3% increase for the twelve months ending December 2024.
The index for Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages represented 15.1% of the overall All Items Index increase.
The Food Index rose 5.4% and contributed 83.8% to the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Index increase. Eight of the nine food subcategories rose over the twelve months. The Index for Bread and Cereals while increasing 8.0% over the year had the largest contribution of 24.2% on Food inflation. The change was primarily impacted by increases in the indexes for Bread and Other Cereals, Flour, and other Products. The index for Fish and Seafood had the second largest impact on Food inflation. The index rose 11.0% and contributed 22.5% to Food inflation. The index for Vegetables and Food Products N.E.C combined contributed 25.6% of the Food index increase.
The Index for All Items Less Food and Energy rose 8.8%. The index for Communication increased by 26.7%. This was affected by an increase in the average cost of cell phones and cell phone services. The index for Miscellaneous Goods and Services increased by 10.1% and the index for Restaurants and Hotels rose by 15.4%. The Clothing and Footwear index increased by 5.4% over the same twelve-month period.
Month-to-Month Price Changes
The Monthly Consumer Price Index increased in January by 3.3% after increasing 0.2% the previous month.
The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages increased by 2.1% with the index for Food increasing by 2.4% over the month. The Food category posted mixed results with eight of nine subcategories posting increases over the one month period. The index for Milk, Cheese and Eggs increased by 3.4%. Other notable increases were Meat and Meat Products (+2.9%). Both the indexes for Food Products N.E.C. and Fruit both increased by 1.6%.
The index for All Items Less Food and Energy rose 4.3% in January. The increase was largely attributed to increases in the indexes for Communication (+11.2%), Restaurant and Hotels (6.1%), and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (+5.5%).
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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.
St John’s Antigua, March 12, 2024. The Statistics Division, under the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Governance releases the CPI for Jan 2024.
Copies of the CPI for Jan 2024 can be accessed on the Division’s official website www.statistics.gov.ag
January 2024 Monthly CPI Publication:
Technical Note on the Compilation of the January 2024 CPI:
Technical Note on the Compilation of the January 2024 Consumer Price Index