The Bureau of Statistics is still to supply the Urban (Georgetown) Consumer Price Index (CPI) for a basket of goods for the months of August, September, October and November even as 2007 comes to an end.
This year the basket of goods has shown inflation of 13.3% up to July, t
Inflation has not reached double figures since 1999.
Yesterday Stabroek News contacted the Chief Statistician Lennox Benjamin to find out when the CPI for the outstanding months will be issued but he was in a meeting. Benjamin has not been available to Stabroek News for months.
Benjamin and Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh in commenting on the 13.3% inflation in July had noted that 2007 has shown swings that are peaks and troughs from the high points of 6.6% in January to less than 0.4% in each of the next two consecutive months, then climbing to a second peak in May to 2.5%. But since July food prices at the market have been climbing for zero-rated and standard rated items, with no signs of abating soon.
The Bureau has stated that the movement in the price index in July did not mean that inflation would end at that level.
In the half-year report presented by the Finance Ministry last month-end, two months late, the ministry indicated that the inflation rate was being revised upward to 9.6% from the projected 5.2% for this year, when the budget was presented in February.
The report said that the picture that clearly emerges for the first half is that unanticipated and exogenous factors such as increased fuel prices and imported food prices, unseasonal rains and flooding conditions have underpinned domestic price movements, particularly in the food group and more widely through higher operational and production costs within the economy. Difficulties in the transition to the value-added tax (VAT) compounded the phenomena, the report said.
Consumers this year have been hard hit by the rising cost of imported goods and the addition of VAT on a number of items that were not previously taxed. The government maintains that VAT has not contributed to hikes in the cost of living and has accused businesses of incorrectly applying the tax.
