Honiara CPI stable in November

Honiara CPI stable in November

THE National Statistics Office (NSO) has recorded a stable movement in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Honiara in the month of November, 2017.

This was according to the latest statistical bulletin released by the Government Statistician Douglas Kimi on Wednesday 27th December, 2017.

CPI is a monthly indicator of the variation in prices for retail goods and other items.

The basket of goods chosen represents the spending behaviour of the population of Honiara and the resulting CPI is used to calculate inflation.
Releasing the Statistical Bulletin (CPI), Mr Kimi said the November CPI remained stable at its October level of 186.4.

Mr Kimi said this was largely driven by price drops in the Food sub-index which offset price rises in the Drinks and Tobacco, Housing and Utilities, and Transport and Communication sub-sections of the index.

“The Food sub-index fell during the month by 0.8% to 169.2. Price declines were recorded in rice (0.2%), flour (0.1%), cooking oil (0.9%), and fresh fruit and vegetables sold at the Honiara market; most notable were bush cabbage (32.2%), ripe banana (22.9%), melon (13.0%), dry coconut (3.1%), green coconut (2.1%) and spring onion (13.2%). These outweighed price rises in fern cabbage (24.2%), Chinese cabbage (21.0%), kumara (5.0%), cassava (11.9%), tomatoes (14.3%), cooking banana (3.7%) and peanut (14.6%) to result in the fall of the overall food sub-index.”

Other major changes in other sub-indexes include:

Drinks and Tobacco went up by 2.3% driven by increases of 0.3% in tobacco prices, 3.4% in the price of betel nut and 7.4% in the price of alcoholic beverages.

Housing and Utilities rose by 0.3% due to rises of 0.3% in electricity charges, 3.6% in the price of L.P gas and 3.2% in kerosene prices.

Transport and Communications went up by 0.1% on account of increases of 0.7% and 2.3% in the prices of petrol and diesel, respectively.

Mr Kimi said apart from the above, price movements elsewhere in the consumption basket were negligible.

“The overall annual headline inflation rate for the month of November 2017 calculated on a 3 months moving average basis was stable at 1.6% during the month.

“The corresponding inflation rates for imported and other items were -1.2% and 3.2%, respectively,” Mr Kimi said.

Meanwhile, the Government Statistician added that the main underlying rates of inflation based on a 3 months moving average for the month of November 2017 were observed between 0.1% and 2.5% while the headline inflation rate was stable at 1.6%.

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