23 April, 2012. |Tongan| The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for March 2012 has recorded an increase of 1.4% over February 2012 (104.1) and now stands at 105.6. When comparing March 2012 to February 2012, both the Local and Import Indexes were increased by 2.6% and 0.7% respectively. The prices for the previous two months, January 2012 marked no changed,0.0% and February 2012 recorded an increased of 0.5%.
The Annual Rate of Inflation for March 2012 was 1.8%, the lowest since 1.5% in January 2010, whereas Local and Imported Annual Inflation Rates were 0.4% and 2.8% respectively. The annual inflation for the same month of previous year, March 2011 was 7.5%.
The Food Group marked the major price increase of 2.7% during March 2012. Local fruits & vegetables such as tomatoes, water melon, pineapple, capsicum, pawpaw, peanut and ripe banana caused this major increase in Food Group from an increased of 0.9% in February 2012. Imported meat also marked an increase in items like mutton flaps, sausage and chicken pieces. In contrast, prices of cereals and cereals products decreased by 0.7% during the period.
The second major increase was 1.2% was recorded in Transportation Group, due mainly to increase prices of petrol, both diesel and unleaded.
The rest of the Groups have no significant price changes, such as Household Operation and Miscellaneous Goods both increased by 0.3% due to increase in prices of LP Gas and increase in prices of cosmetics like shampoo and deodorant. Tobacco, Alcohol & Kava, Housing and Clothing & Footwear both all marked no price changes this month.
Detailed information from this release is available from the Statistics Department Or visit our website at www.spc.int/prism/tonga/
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Issued by: The Statistics Department, P.O. Box 149, Nuku'alofa, Kingdom of Tonga
Telephone: (676) 23-300/23-913 Fax: (676) 24 303 Website: www.spc.int/prism/tonga/
