Statistics Mauritius has published its monthly report on the consumer price index. This document shows that annual inflation has reached 9.6% in June 2022, compared to 5.9% in June 2021. Overall inflation for the 12 months ending June 2022 was 8.0 percent, compared with 2.2 percent for the 12 months ending June 2021.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.5 points or 0.4 percent from 121.6 in May 2022 to 122.1 in June 2022. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the measure of inflation. It estimates the average change in the prices of goods consumed by households between two given periods.
Year-on-year inflation CORE1 reached 10.9% in June 2022, compared to 4.1% in June 2021, while year-on-year inflation CORE2 reached 8.2% in June 2022, compared to 4.5% in June 2021. CORE1 excludes the food, beverage, and tobacco components and mortgage interest on home loans from headline inflation.
CORE1 inflation for the 12 months ending June 2022 reached 6.6 percent, up from 2.7 percent in June 2021. Similarly, CORE2 inflation for the 12 months ending June 2022 was 5.8 percent, up from 3.8 percent in June 2021.
CORE2 excludes from headline inflation food, beverages, and tobacco; mortgage interest on home loans; electricity, gas, other fuels, and price-controlled items.
The headline inflation rate is calculated using the annual average method, which compares the average price level in a twelve-month period with the average level in the corresponding previous twelve-month period.
The year-over-year inflation rate is calculated as the percentage change in the CPI in a given month relative to the CPI in the corresponding month of the previous year.
All of these increases reflect a rise in the cost of living in Mauritius. But the figures for July are likely to be much higher because the government has removed subsidies on several products. Moreover, if we look in detail at the report of the national statistics center, we learn that this increase is mainly reflected in an increase in consumer prices. For example, we notice that the prices of food products have increased in the beginning of July.
