Inflation cooled in December as the overall prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages as well as transportation costs eased, outweighing increases in restaurant and accommodation services, according to the latest data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica’s (Statin) Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The cost of food and non-alcoholic beverages declined by 1.0 per cent and transportation by 0.9 per cent, and their weight in the CPI basket allowed their declines to outweigh a 3.4 per cent increase in restaurant meals and an increase in water and electricity rates in the month.

Commenting on the reductions, Statin Director General Carol Coy noted, “The decline in the index for ‘food and non-alcoholic beverages’ division was due mainly to a 1.1 per cent fall in the index for the ‘food’ group, which was primarily attributed to a 6.3 per cent fall in the index for the class, ‘vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses’. The decline in the index for this class was due to lower prices for agricultural produce such as carrot, Irish potato, lettuce, pak-choi and tomatoes.”

“This was due to improved supplies, as the agricultural sector recovered from adverse weather conditions experienced between late September and early November 2022. However, the index for all other classes increased, notably: ‘Cereals and cereal products’, ‘meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals’ and ‘fish and seafood’, each with an upward movement of 0.4 per cent in their index,” she continued.

At the same time, ‘non-alcoholic beverages’ group grew by 1.0 per cent, not enough to trigger an increase in the overall group.

Statin attributed the fall-off in transportation prices to a decrease in the costs of petrol, which impacted the ‘operation of personal transport equipment’ category.

‘Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ rose by 0.7 per cent due mainly to increases in the rates for electricity, water and sewage.

While the movement in inflation between November and December was deemed a “negligible decline” — the index falling from 128.0 to 127.9 — point-to-point inflation for December was 9.4 per cent when the index for December 2022 was compared to December 2021. This was the second-lowest point-to-point inflation since January 2021, just above 9.3 per cent recorded in September.

Year-to-date inflation for fiscal year 2022/23 was 6.2 per cent, just outside the Bank of Jamaica’s range of 4.0 – 6.0 per cent.