By Chantalé Fletcher
THERE was a 0.3% decrease in the index of retail prices, including food items and non-alcoholic beverages, in December 2021 compared to November 2021.
This according to data collected by the Central Statistical Office (CSO).
In a recent release, CSO stated, “The Index of Retail Prices is a weighted average of the proportionate changes in the prices of a specified set or ‘basket’ of consumer goods and services between two periods of time.”
The CSO highlighted the index on food and nonalcoholic beverages had a decrease of 0.9% from 128.2 in November to 127.0 in December.
This decrease was due to a reduction in items such as vegetables such as pumpkin, chive, sweet pepper, melongene, mixed fresh seasoning, hot peppers, whole chickens, powdered milk and salted pigtail.
However, in December, there was an increase of some products such as of these price whole chickens – frozen tomatoes, other chilled or frozen chicken (parts), white flour, table margarine, pimento, low-fat milk, oranges, sweet potatoes and fresh, chilled, frozen or seasoned beef.
The CSO added the data for December when compared with November 2021 also reflected decreases in the sub-indices for Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco of 0.3%, while clothing and footwear had a 0.1% reduction.
Meanwhile, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuel, Education, Transport and Communication, in addition to recreation and culture, hotels, cafes, restaurants, households, equipment and routine maintenance of the house, miscellaneous goods and services remain unchanged.
In addition, the year-on-year Inflation Rate was monitored by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago which recorded a decrease of 3.6% from November 2021/November 2020, whereas the inflation rate for the comparative period (December 2020/December 2019) was 0.8%.
