St John’s Antigua, July 16, 2024. The Statistics Division, under the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Governance releases the CPI for May 2024
Year-on-Year Analysis
The All Items Index for the twelve months ending May 2024 rose 6.6%.
The May inflation similar to the April inflation was largely affected by increases in the indexes for Miscellaneous Goods and Services (+24.3) Communication (+17.4%), Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Othe Fuels (+5.5%), and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (+4.9%).
All four groups account for 90.6% of the overall All Item Index increase.The increase in the Miscellaneous Goods and Services index accounted for one-third of the total 12-month increase in the All Items index.
The index for Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages increased 4.9% driven by the 4.5% increase in the Food Index. All nine food sub-categories rose over the twelve months led by the index for Milk, Cheese, and Eggs increasing 16.2% and accounting for 30.5% on Food inflation.
The increase was significantly impacted by a 25.9% increase in the sub category index for Preserved Milk and other Milk Products. Other indexes with notable increases accounted for 50.2% of the Food inflation over the year include Bread and Cereals (+5.1%), Meat and Meat Products (+4.6%), and Vegetables (+2.3%).
The Index for All Items Less Food and Energy or core inflation rose 7.6% over the last twelve months, a larger increase than the 12-months ending April 2024. The Index for Restaurants and Hotel rose 12.9% while the index rent increased 8.72% over the same period.
Month-to-Month Price Changes
The Monthly Consumer Price Index declined in May 2024 by 1.2% after rising 5.1% in April 2024.
The decline in the Month-on-Month CPI was attributed largely to a decrease in the index for Transport of 9.7%.
The Transport Services index declined 23.3% primarly due average price decreases of airline tickets to St. Maarten, Barbados and New York.
The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages inex decreased by 1.8% with the index for Food declining by 1.9%.
The food category posted mixed results with four of nine sub-categories posting decreases over the one month. Notably, the index for Vegetables posted a decline of 5.8%. Both the index for Bread and Cereals and Fish seafood decreased by 4.1%.
Contrary to the decrease the index for Sugars, Jams, Honey Chocolate, and Confectionery rose 2.1%. The remaining index increases ranged from Meats and Meat Products (+0.8%) to Fruits (+1.8%).
The index for All Items Less Food and Energy remains unchanged in May.
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.
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