St John’s Antigua, May 27, 2021. The Statistics Division, under the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Governance releases the CPI for Apr 2021
Year-on-Year Analysis
The All Items index rose 1.2% for the twelve months ending April 2021, a smaller increase than the 2.1% percent increase for the period ending March 2021.
The Food index increased by 0.9% over the last twelve months. Six of nine supermarket food group indexes increased over the period. The largest was the Fruit index which rose 8.1%. Several other categories posted increases above 1%, these included Milk, Cheese and Eggs (+1.3%), Food Products Not Elsewhere Specified (+1.5), Oils and Fats (+3.0%), and Bread and Cereals (+5.3).
The index for All Items Less Food and Energy increased 2.8% over the past twelve months. Indexes with the largest twelve month increases included Communication (+7.2), Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (+6.1), and Transport (+5.9). The Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco, and Narcotics index increased 3.1% over the period, and the Health index rose 2.8%.
The Index Recreation and Culture declined 8.9% while the index for Restaurants and Hotels decreased by 1.9% over the same twelve periods.
The Energy index declined 8.8% since the reduction of the fuel variation rate last year from 0.60 cents to 0.50 cents.
Month-to-Month Price Changes
The Monthly Consumer Price Index remained unchanged in April 2021.
The Food index increased 1.3% in April with nearly all the major food categories increasing. The index for Meats and Meat Products rose 5.2% in April as the index for Pork increased by 41.4%. The index for Fruit rose 3.9%. The indexes for Bread and Cereals and Oil and Fats both increased 1.5%. The index for Vegetables rose 0.5% and the index for Sugar, Jams, Honey, Chocolate, and Confectionery rose 0.4% over the same month. The Index for Fish and Seafood increased 0.1% in April.
The index for All Items Less Food and Energy was unchanged in April. The index for Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics rose 3.8%. The index for Clothing and Footwear increased 2.4% and the index for Recreation and Culture rose 1.8% over one month. The overall remained unchanged as the increase was offset with decreases in the indexes for Transport (-1.8%), Communication (-1.2%) and Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (-0.9%).
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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.