GEISHA KOW­LESSAR-ALON­ZO

Se­nior Re­porter

geisha.kow­lessar@guardian.co.tt

High­er prices for food and more mon­ey for ca­ble bills con­tributed to the in­crease in the in­fla­tion rate from 0.5 per cent in April to 0.9 per cent in May, says econ­o­mist Dr Mar­lene Attzs.

On Mon­day, the CSO an­nounced that the May 2024 in­fla­tion rate, which mea­sures the per­cent­age change in the all-items in­dex for the month of May 2024 over May 2023, was 0.9 per cent.

This rep­re­sent­ed an in­crease from 0.5 per cent which was record­ed in the pre­vi­ous pe­ri­od (April 2023/April 2024).

The in­fla­tion rate for the pe­ri­od (May 2023/May 2022) was 5.7 per cent.

Not­ing the CSO spec­i­fied some cat­e­gories where there were up­ward trends be­tween May 2023 and May 2024, Attzs told Guardian Me­dia, “For ex­am­ple, the CSO says that the av­er­age cost of com­mu­ni­ca­tions in­creased by 8.5 per cent, health­care by 7.9 per cent and food and non-al­co­holic bev­er­ages in­creased by 3.1 per cent. All of these cat­e­gories will af­fect the av­er­age cit­i­zens through things like high­er ca­ble bills, high­er costs of med­i­cines, and of course, high­er costs as­so­ci­at­ed with buy­ing food ei­ther buy­ing in­gre­di­ents to cook food or buy­ing pre­pared food.”

On the is­sue of the in­crease in food prices, she said this is some­thing that would res­onate with the pop­u­la­tion. She said the CSO not­ed there was an up­ward move­ment in some food items, with in­creas­es cit­ed for white flour and par­boiled rice.

There were al­so in­creas­es in agri­cul­tur­al prod­ucts pro­duce such as toma­toes, cel­ery, cu­cum­bers and pump­kin, Attzs not­ed adding, “And those who vis­it mar­kets will ap­pre­ci­ate that prices have, in fact, in­creased. The good thing is the CSO is al­so say­ing the in­creased prices for these items would have been off­set or bal­anced off by a gen­er­al de­crease in the prices oth­er food items, in­clud­ing things like fresh whole chick­en, fresh fish, among oth­ers. So, there was a net im­pact but the net im­pact was ac­tu­al­ly a high­er in­crease.”

The CSO in­di­cat­ed that the full im­pact of these price in­creas­es were off­set by the gen­er­al de­crease in the prices of fresh whole chick­en, soya bean oil, fresh carite, ta­ble mar­garine, ochroes, fresh king fish, onions, plan­tains, corn­flakes and tea in bags.

How­ev­er, Attzs em­pha­sised the net im­pact was an in­crease in food prices.

With the rainy sea­son in full force, Attzs ad­vised that one of the is­sues the buy­ing pop­u­la­tion needs to take cog­ni­sance of is how the rain will af­fect the avail­abil­i­ty and price of lo­cal agri­cul­tur­al pro­duce. She said the ex­pect­ed in­crease in the price of lo­cal agri­cul­tur­al pro­duce may well im­pact on food prices mov­ing for­ward.

“So, it’s some­thing that we need to keep an eye on,” she main­tained.