Durrant Pate/Contributor

Inflation in Jamaica rose by 0.3 per cent last month based on the All-Jamaica Consumer Price Index (CPI) for May 2022, as released by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).

The CPI measures changes in the general level of prices for consumer goods and services purchased by private households. The upward movement in the CPI was largely the result of a 7.7 per cent increase in the index for the division ‘Restaurant and Accommodation Services’.

This increase was due to higher prices for items within the class ‘Restaurants, cafés and the like’. Also contributing to the upward movement in the CPI is an increase of 0.4 per cent in the index for the heavily weighted division ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’.

Within this division, the class ‘Cereals and cereal products’ had the largest increase (2.4 per cent) due to increases in the price of flour, bread and rice.

Meat, seafood and non-alcoholic beverages

Other notable increases were recorded in the classes: ‘Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals’ (1.5%), ‘Fish and Seafood’ (1.4 per cent) and ‘Milk, other dairy products and eggs’ (1.1 per cent). However, the increase in the ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ division was tempered by a 2.9 per cent decline in the index for the class ‘Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses’.

This decline was due to lower prices for agricultural produce such as vegetables, as a result of an improvement in the local supplies. The CPI for May was also impacted by the index ‘Transport’ division which increased by 0.8 per cent due to higher petrol prices.

The overall rate of inflation was moderated by a 3.0 per cent decline in the index for the ‘Housing, Water, Electricity Gas and Other Fuels’ division, due largely to a decline of 9.0 per cent in the index for the group ‘Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels’.

The point-to-point inflation rate (May 2021 – May 2022) was 10.9 per cent.

This was influenced mainly by the point-to-point inflation rate for the divisions: ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ (13.9 per cent), ‘Restaurant and Accommodation Services’ (29.4 per cent) and ‘Transport’ (15.1 per cent). The fiscal year-to-date inflation rate was 0.3 per cent.