Trinidad & Tobago: Inflation Decreasing; But Only Slightly

• The Central Statistical Office (CSO) reported a 0.2% decrease in inflation for the month of August for Trinidad and Tobago, according to a release of its retail price index on Friday.
• The inflation rate, measured as a percentage change in the average all items index, for January to August 2023/2022 amounted to 6.2%, compared to 6.4% for the period January-July 2022/2023.
• The index for food and non-alcoholic beverages decreased from 147.5 in July to 147.0 in August, reflecting a decrease of 0.3%.
• Contributing significantly to this decrease was the general downward movement in the prices of tomatoes, white flour, parboiled rice, melongene, ochroes, soya bean oil, chilled or frozen chicken, celery, cheddar cheese and eddoes.
• However, the full impact of these price decreases was offset by the general increases in the prices of chilled or frozen beef or pork, fresh beef, whole chicken (fresh or frozen), Irish potatoes, plantains, green pigeon peas, steak (fresh) and garlic.
• Notwithstanding, though this August 2023 figure represents a month-on-month decrease, the country's inflation rate for August was 1.3 percentage points (pp) higher than the 4.9% recording during the period January-August 2022/2021.

(Sources: Central Statistical Office of Trinidad and Tobago & T&T Newsday)