The price of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 2.9 per cent from June 2022 to July 2022, according to the retail price index released by the Central Statistical Office (CSO).
It said contributing significantly to this increase was the general upward movement in the prices of white flour, tomatoes, parboiled rice, ochro, melongene, green (sweet) pepper, chive, celery, ketchup and sliced white bread.
However, the CSO said the full impact of these price increases was offset by the general decreases in the prices of green pigeon peas, fresh and frozen chicken, fresh King fish, fresh Carite, carrots, hot peppers, garlic, fresh pork and salted pig tail.
A further review of the data for July 2022 compared with June 2022 also reflected an increase in the sub-index for alcoholic beverages and tobacco of 0.7 per cent; clothing and footwear of 1.1 per cent; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels of 0.6 per cent; furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house of 3.2 per cent; health of 1.1 per cent; transport of 2.5 per cent; recreation and culture of 0.7 per cent; hotels, cafés and restaurants of 1.4 per cent; and miscellaneous goods and services of 1.0 per cent.
All other sections remained unchanged.
The inflation rate for July 2022 was 4.7 per cent.
This represents an increase from 4.5 per cent which was recorded in the previous period (January to June 2022/January to June 2021).
The inflation rate for the comparative period (January to July 2021/January to July 2020) was 1.3 per cent, the CSO noted.
