Guardian ( Trinidad and Tobago )
31 March 2023 ( Page 15 )
Food, drinks prices jump 17.33%
CSO report on January inflation:
Amid ever-increasing concern over the rising cost of
living, Government’s official data agency, the Central
Statistical Office (CSO), this week reported that the prices
of food and non-alcoholic beverages were 17.33 per cent
higher in January 2023 than in January 2022.
The prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages were
17.32 per cent higher in December 2022 than in December
2021. The CSO report indicated that food and nonalcoholic beverage prices in January 2023 were 25.04 per
cent higher than in January 2021. In its latest report of
the Retail Price Index (RPI), the CSO also noted that the
cost of transportation in January 2023 was 14 per cent
higher than a year earlier.
The increase in the cost of transportation mainly resulted
from the decision by the Government to increase the
price of fuels twice last year—on April 19, and in the
September 26, 2022 budget presentation: • Those price
increases raised the cost of diesel by 29.32 per cent last
year from $3.41 a litre to $4.41 a litre; • The price of super
gasoline rose by 40.24 per cent in 2022 from $4.97 per
litre to $6.97 per litre; • And the price of premium
gasoline increased by 34.78 per cent, moving from $5.75
to $7.75 per litre. Fuel prices were raised because of the
increase in the price of crude oil that followed Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine.
Prices for recreation and culture were 11 per cent higher
in January this year than last year and prices at hotels,
cafes and restaurants were recorded as being 9.9 per cent
higher for the first month of 2023 than 12 months earlier.
More moderate price increases were noted for alcoholic
beverages and tobacco (up 0.3 per cent); communication
(up 0.1 per cent) and clothing and footwear (up 0.9 per
cent), according to the CSO. No increase in prices was
recorded for education and the category housing, water,
electricity, gas and other fuels.
The CSO, which falls under the control of the Ministry of
Planning and Development, reported that the All Items
Index of prices in the economy was, on average, 8.32 per
cent higher in January this year than January last year.
The January All Items Index of prices, which is described
as the headline inflation rate, was marginally lower that
the 8.73 per cent increase the CSO reported for December
2022.
Repo report
The CSO’s publication of the January 2023 data on
inflation comes as the Central Bank is due to make its
quarterly Monetary Police Announcement today. In that
report, the Central Bank analyses the impact of various
factors on the price of goods and the availability of credit
in T&T and announces the repo rate, which influences
interest rate throughout the economy.
In the March 16, 2023, concluding statement following its
two-week long Article IV consultation, a team from the
International Monetary Fund advised the Central Bank to
that an increase in the repo rate should be “seriously
considered.”
The IMF team said: “The Central Bank of Trinidad and
Tobago (CBTT) has maintained its repo rate at 3.5 per cent
since March 2020 to support the recovery of the economy.
Increasing the policy rate should be seriously considered
to contain inflationary pressures and narrow the negative
interest rate differentials with the US monetary policy
rate.”
Responding to that advice from IMF at a news conference
on Monday, Finance Minister cited a comment he said
was made by Central Bank Governor Dr Alvin Hilaire
during their discussions with the IMF team.
Hilaire is reported to have said that “unlike the Federal
Reserve in the US, which has a legal mandate to use
interest rates to contain inflation, we have no such
mandate in Trinidad and Tobago.”
The Central Bank’s mandate is “the promotion of such
monetary, credit and exchange policies as would foster
monetary and financial stability and public confidence
and be favourable to the economy of Trinidad and
Tobago.”
One-month change
Focusing specifically on the change in food and nonalcoholic prices between the end of December 2022 and
January 2023, the CSO said: “The Index for Food and NonAlcoholic Beverages increased from 149.0 in December
2022 to 150.3 in January 2023, reflecting an increase of 0.9
per cent.
“Contributing significantly to this increase was the
general upward movement in the prices of chilled or
frozen beef, fresh beef, pumpkin, chilled or frozen pork,
fresh carite, fresh whole chickens, hot peppers,
pimentos, table margarine and evaporated milk.
“However, the full impact of these price increases was
offset by the general decreases in the prices of
cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, ochroes, lettuce, chives,
other fresh goat, bodi, mixed fresh seasoning and
patchoi.
“Price changes in this section for the month of January
2023 accounted for a net overall increase of 0.2 points in
the All Items Index.”
Photos - Finance Minister Colm Imbert/
Governor of the Central Bank Dr Alvin Hilaire