Consumer Price Index- November 2022
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The Consumer Price Index or CPI measures the overall change in the price level of a market basket of consumer goods and services that people typically buy over time with monthly price collections carried out in the urban areas (Suva, Lami, Nasinu, Nausori, Lautoka, Nadi, Ba and Labasa). The index is currently taken to represent price changes in the rural areas as well. The CPI is calculated by taking price changes for each item in the predetermined basket of goods and averaging them; the goods are weighted according to their importance
For identifying periods of inflation or deflation, CPI is one of the most frequently used statistics because large rises in CPI during a short period of time typically denote periods of inflation and vice-versa for deflation. Inflation is the rate at which the price level for goods and services is rising, and, subsequently, purchasing power is falling. In other words, as inflation rises, every dollar will buy a smaller percentage of a good.
In Fiji, there are two measures of inflAtion usED:
1.) The first compares the average CPI over the past twelve months with the average CPI over the previous twelve months which is depicted in Graph 1. It shows that inflation rate is increasing per month leaving the annual average inflation rate for the twelve months to November 2022 at 4.5 per cent while the percentage change with comparison against November 2021 stands at 5.2 per cent.
2.) The second compares the CPI in the current month with the CPI in the comparable month of the previous year which is shown in Graph 2. The All-Items CPI for the month of November 2022 stands at 117.6, this registered a decrease of 0.2 per cent from the previous month.
Details of price changes between October 2022 and November 2022 by expenditure groups are as follows:
1.) Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages: +0.4% due to higher prices recorded for bread, cereals, meat, oils & fats, vegetables, food products not elsewhere classified and non-alcoholic beverages such as coffee, tea & cocoa and mineral water.
2.) Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics: -0.9% due to lower prices recorded for spirits, wine, beer and yaqona.
3.) Clothing and Footwear: +0.5% due to higher prices recorded for garments, other articles of clothing & clothing accessories and shoes & other footwear.
4.) Housing, Water, Electricity,
Gas and Other Fuels: -0.5% due to lower prices recorded for paints, gas, and liquid fuels.
5.) Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance: +0.2% due to higher prices recorded for household textiles, small electric household appliance, small tools & miscellaneous accessories, and non-durable household goods.
6.) Health: +0.3% due to higher prices recorded for pharmaceutical products.
7.) Transport: -0.9% due to lower prices recorded for fuels & lubricants for personal transport equipment.
8.) Recreation and Culture: -0.1% due to lower prices recorded for equipment for the reception, record & reproduction of sound & picture.
9.) Miscellaneous Goods and Services: +0.8% due to higher prices recorded for other appliances, articles and products for personal care, jewellery, clocks, and watches.
There were no price changes recorded in the Communication, Education, Restaurants & Hotel divisions.
The annual headline inflation rate in November stood at 5.2 percent, slightly lower than the 5.4 percent recorded in October.
The higher annual prices were driven primarily by imported food, Clothing & Footwear, Food & Nonalcoholic beverages. The monthly consumer prices fell in November by 0.2 percent led by lower prices for Fuels, Alcoholic beverages, and Transport.