Consumer Price Index: Inflation Decreased 0.4%

Consumers paid 0.5% more in December 2019 than they did a year ago for the basket of goods and services included in the Consumer Price Index [CPI] and the level of inflation declined by 0.4 percentage points from November 2019.

A Government spokesperson said, “Today, Minister for the Cabinet Office the Hon. Wayne L. Furbert, JP, MP, released the December 2019 Consumer Price Index publication from the Department of Statistics.

“In December 2019 consumers paid 0.5 per cent more for the CPI basket of goods and services than they did in December 2018. Between November 2019 and December 2019 the average cost of all goods and services declined 0.5 percentage points.

“The Health & Personal Care sector was the largest contributor to the year-over-year change, increasing 4.1 per cent. In addition, the Food and Tobacco & Liquor sectors contributed to the rise in the annual rate of inflation as price shifts in these sectors were 2.6 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively.

“Between November and December the Fuel & Power sector declined 1.5 per cent as the fuel adjustment clause dipped 4.5 per cent in December. The Transport & Foreign Travel sector recorded a 2.8 per cent decrease. The average cost of air fares, overseas hotels and overseas car rentals and drove the decline, with decrease of 10.7 per cent, 3.7 per cent and 1.7 per cent, respectively. On the month, the average cost of food prices fell 0.1 per cent for the month.

“Among the main items contributing to the decline were cookies [-11.3 per cent], flour [-3.4 per cent] and mayonnaise [-3.1 per cent]. The Tobacco & Liquor sector rose 0.2 per cent reflecting an increase in the average price of wines [+0.6 per cent].”

The full December 2019 Consumer Price Index follows below [PDF here]:

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