Consumers have reason to frown when they go shopping at supermarkets. The consumer price index, which stood at 108.5 in March 2021, rose by 2.9 points to 111.4 in June 2021.
This is according to Statistics of Mauritius in its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI).
On a monthly basis, the CPI rose by 0.5 points in April, 0.8 points in May and 1.6 points in June 2021.
The main factors contributing to the increase in the CPI from March 2021 to June 2021 were: higher prices for vegetables (+0.4 points), meat (+0.2 points), fish (+0.1 points), milk powder (+0.1 points), some semi-frozen foods (+0.1 points), and some other food products (+0.3 points);higher prices for cigarettes (+0.4 points);higher prices for beer and higher prices for whiskey (+0.1 points);higher prices for rum and other spirits (+0.1 points).
Other factors also contributed to the increase in the CPI. These included higher prices for vegetables (+7.8 percent), meat (+4.3 percent), fish (+4.3 percent), milk powder (+3.0 percent), fruit (+2.5 percent), cooking oil (+4.3 percent), margarine and ghee (+10.3 percent), and other food products (+5.5 percent), higher prices for ready-made garments (+0, 5%), footwear prices (+0.4%) and clothing materials (+1.6%), rising prices of materials for housing maintenance and repair (+3.0%) and rising interest on housing loans (+0.2%), rising prices of washing products and softeners (+2.8%), furniture (+0.9%) .
Note that the inflation rate was 2.5% in 2020, counts 0.5% in 2019. The inflation rate for the twelve months ending June 2021 was 2.2%, compared to 1.8% for the twelve months ending June 2020. The overall inflation rate excluding “alcoholic beverages and tobacco” for the twelve months ending June 2021 was 2.2%, compared to 1.9% for the twelve months ending June 2020.
