Trinidad and Tobago’s inflation up 4.5% in first half of 2022
/ Our Today
administrator
The Central Statistical Office (CSO) in Trinidad and Tobago has announced that the inflation rate in the twin-island republic has jumped to 4.5 per cent for the period January to June 2022.
The general upward movement in the prices of chicken, oil, beef, brown sugar, powdered milk and other basic food items were the primary drivers for the inflation outturn. However, the full impact of these price increases was offset by the general falloff in the prices of carite (Spanish mackerel); onion; cabbage; carrots; milo; pumpkin; apples; shrimp – fresh; sweet potatoes and parboiled rice.
Food inflation rose to 8.7 per cent from 7.9 per cent. The CSO said that the All Items Index of Retail Prices calculated from the prices collected for the month of June 2022 was 116.2, representing an increase of 0.3 points or 0.3 per cent above the index for May 2022.
Ratings agency, Fitch Solutions projects that inflation will close the year at 5.5 per cent in 2022 and 3.8 per cent in 2023. Financial system liquidity remains ample with commercial banks’ excess reserves at the Central Bank averaging $5.3 billion in early June 2022.
However, despite reopening the economy, it said data from the CSO showed the unemployment rate started to trend down earlier, reaching 5.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2021, from 7.2 per cent high at the end of 2020.
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