Rental costs decrease

Liquor, spare ribs and cable TV all helped push Bermuda’s inflation rate up 1.9 per cent for January.

The Health & Personal Care sector showed the largest year-on-year increase by being up 7.7 per cent. The Food sector was up 3.5 per cent on a yearly basis while the Transports & Vehicles sector saw a 2.5 per cent increase from January 2012.

The 1.9 per cent increase in the Consumer Price Index, as measured by the Department of Statistics, was the five consecutive month it has been below 2.0 per cent with four of those five months the inflation rate has been pegged at 1.9 per cent.

In increases from December to January, frozen spare ribs were up 7.5 per cent with spices (+6.9 per cent) and canned tuna (+4.6 per cent )also showing spikes.

The price of alcoholic spirits were up 1.6 per cent and the cost of subscription television services rose by 1.7 per cent.

The Rent sector saw 0.1 per cent decline with those units not under rent control declining by 0.2 per cent.

The cost of airfares and foreign hotel accommodations decreased by 4.7 and 5.7 per cent respectively, which contributed to a 1.2 per cent decline in the Transport and Vehicles sector.

The cost of clothing increased by 3.2 per cent (men’s), 2.0 per cent (women’s) and 0.7 per cent (children’s). These increases led to a 1.1 per cent increase in the Clothing and Footwear sector.