St John’s Antigua, May 1, 2024. The Statistics Division, under the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Governance releases the CPI for Mar 2024.
Year-on-Year Analysis
The All Items Index increased 4.9% for the twelve months ending March 2024, this is a 2.2 percentage point decrease from the February 2024 inflation rate.
The March reduction was impacted by a 6.5% reduction in the Index for Transport. This index was affected by a 26.6% decline in the index for Transport Services. The index for Passenger Transport by Air declined 31.4% over the twelve months impacting the reduction in the Transport Index.
The Food Index rose 5.4% and contributed 85.4% to the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Index increase. All nine food subcategories rose over the twelve months. The index for Vegetables while increasing 6.0% over the year had the largest contribution of 24.1% on Food inflation. The change was primarily due to increases in the indexes for Fresh or Chilled Vegetables and Frozen, Preserved, or Processed Vegetable and Vegetable Products.
The index for Bread and Cereals had the second largest impact on food inflation. The index rose 6.9% and contributed 19.7% to food inflation. The index for Fish and Seafood, Food Products N.E.C, and Meat and Meat Products combined contributed 33.8% of the Food index increase.
The Index for All Items Less Food and Energy rose 5.2%. Core inflation was impacted mainly by five category indexes: the index for Communication(+ 26.7%), Miscellaneous Goods and Services (+10.1%), Restaurants and Hotels (+15.4%), Housing Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (+1.8%) and Clothing & Footwear (+5.4)%.
Month-to-Month Price Changes
The Monthly Consumer Price Index declined in March by 1.8% after a marginal increase of 0.1% the previous month.
The decline in the March Month-on-Month CPI was attributed largely to the decline in the index for Transport of 11.2%. The Transport index was affected by a 34.3% decrease in the index for Passenger Transport by Air.
The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages increased by 0.4% with the index for Food increasing by 0.4% over the month. The food category posted mixed results with five of nine subcategories posting increases over the one month. The index for Oil and Fats increased by 5.2%. Other notable increases were Milk, Cheese, and Eggs (+2.7%) and Bread and Cereals (+2.2%). The remaining index indexes increases ranged from 0.3% to 0.6%.
The index for All Items Less Food and Energy declined by 2.5% in March. The decrease was influenced by the reduction in the indexes for Transport Services (-29.2%), Actual Rentals for Housing (-1.3%), and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (-0.2%).
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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.
Copies of this and previous CPI publications can be accessed in the analysis section of the Consumer Price Index Subjects page.
March 2024 Monthly CPI Publication: