Trinidad and Tobago’s Inflation Drops To 1.3%

• The Central Statistical Office (CSO) reported that Trinidad and Tobago’s (T&T’s) inflation rate fell to 1.3% last month compared to October 2022. Consumer prices rose by 0.3% in the month between September 2023 and October 2023.
• The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 5.1% between October 2022 and October 2023, down from an annual increase of 6.4% in the 12 months to September 2023. The annual growth in the CPI has been over 5.0% since October 2021.
• Notably, the All-Items Index recorded for October 2023 was 124.1 points, which was 1.3% higher than the 122.5 that the index recorded one year earlier.
• Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 1.86%, moving from 144.5 in October 2022 to 147.2 in October 2023. Food and non-alcoholic beverages constitute 17.3% of the All-Items Index, which is only surpassed by costs associated with home owning, which account for 27.5% of the All-Items Index.
• For the year between October 2022 and October 2023, alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased by 7.4%. However, clothing and footwear declined by 4.8%, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels fell by 1.3%, and home ownership was down by 1.8%.
• According to the CSO, the Index for Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages decreased from 148.2 in September 2023 to 147.2 in October 2023, reflecting a decrease of 0.7%. Contributing significantly to this decrease was the general downward movement in the prices of Irish potatoes, fresh whole chicken, onions, eddoes, pumpkin, plantains, chive, dasheen, sweet potatoes, and ochroes.
• Nonetheless, the full impact of these price decreases was offset by the general increases in the prices of table margarine, carrots, melon, green sweet peppers, parboiled rice, fresh carite and grapes, melongene, bodi and brown sugar.

(Source: Trinidad and Tobago Guardian)