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Archive -Seychelles

Fuel and utilities prices raise Seychelles inflation |08 June 2018

 

Seychelles inflation rose slightly in May as a result of higher costs of fuel and utilities, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday when it released figures for the month.

“The slight increase is mainly attributable to a rise in the cost of fuel and utilities, which have a high weighting on our basket,” chief executive of the NBS Laura Ah-Time said on telephone, adding hikes were mainly on non-food items.

 Most of our electricity is produced by organic-fuel driven generators except for a small amount that comes from wind-powered turbines.

“In May 2018, the All items annual (year on year) inflation rate stood at 3.59% compared to 3.18% in May 2017. Month on month, the inflation rate in May 2018 was 0.12% compared to 0.15% in April 2018,” the bureau said.

“The All items 12-monthly average inflation stood at 3.82%. Fish prices recorded a decrease (-8.01%), whereas increases were recorded in both Other Food (1.40%) and Non-Food (4.39%).”

The NBS said the data released continued with the changes introduced in January 2015.

“These changes include revisions made to the weights, the basket of goods and services and a new index reference period.

“The weights are taken from the Household Budget Survey 2013,” said the report.

The bureau explained that the index released yesterday measures the rate of price change of a fixed basket of goods and services purchased by Seychelles households.

“The NBS collects about 4,000 price observations monthly across Mahé, Praslin and La Digue.

“The cost price index is the tool which measures price changes in goods and services with reference to a base period for which the index is set to equal 100.

“Any increase or decrease in this index reflects a rise or drop in the price of the good or service compared to the price in the base period. Rapid increases in the index imply that the market structure is changing. The movement in index from one period to another can be expressed as a percentage change or changes in index points.

“The rate of inflation on the other hand measures the rate at which the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services is changing over time. This is usually measured as a ratio of the average index over a twelve-month period to the average index,” said the NBS in their bulletin.

 

 

 

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