A further 0.2 percent fall in inflation rate was recorded for Honiara in June 2018.
According to the latest Honiara Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month (June), the drop was from 192.9 in May to 192.5 in June.
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.
In the Solomon Islands, inflation is limited to the current CPI basket of goods and services and thus does not represent all price movements of all goods and services in the economy.
It is generally a broad measure of the cost of living in the country.
Government Statistician, Mr Douglas Kimi while releasing the statistics recently said the plunge offsets marginal price rises mainly in Food, Transportation and Communication categories.
“The Food index slightly rose during the month by 0.02 percent to 178.5. This was mainly driven by price rises in powdered milk (0.9 percent), second grade tuna (0.6 percent) and in fresh fruits and vegetables at the Honiara market such as cucumber (25.8 percent), green beans (16.9 percent), melon (10.1 percent), cooking banana (6.7 percent), cassava (6.4 percent), bush cabbage (2.9 percent), and kumara heaps (1.5 percent). These outweighed price drops in a certain produce such as dry coconuts (-1.8 percent), tomatoes (-7.0 percent), Chinese cabbage (-9.0 percent) and coral fish (-19.2 percent) resulting in the slight rise of the overall food index,” Kimi stated.
Other major changes in other sub-index includes;
- Drinks and Tobacco increased 0.4 percent driven by a rise of 2.5 percent in the price of betel nut outweighing a fall -1.0 percent in tobacco prices.
- Housing and Utilities dropped 1.9 percent on account of a drop -8.0 percent in electricity charges.
- Household Operations went up 0.4 percent due to an increase of 0.9 percent in price of household supplies and services, in particular, washing powder 4.8 percent.
- Transport and Communication went up 1.3 percent resulting from increases in diesel and petrol prices by 7.9 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively.
- Miscellaneous Items rose 0.6 per cent on account of a 3.0 percent rise in the price of personal care products.
“The overall annual headline inflation rate for the month of June 2018 calculated on a 3 months moving average basis was 2.4 percent, down by 0.4 percentage points from 2.8 percent the previous month. The corresponding inflation rates for imported and other items were 0.1 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively.
“The main underlying rates of inflation based on a 3 months moving average for the month of June 2018 were observed between -0.5 percent and 1.7 percent while the headline inflation rate was at 2.4 percent,” Kimi said.
–SINSO PRESS
