Mauritius saw prices decline further last month as year-on-year inflation dipped to 3.1% in July from 3.3% in June 2014, according to a report by Statistics Mauritius published on Wednesday, 6 August 2014.
Moving to the month-on-month comparison between indices for June and July, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) last month held steady at June’s level of 106.8 points.
However, changes were seen within individual categories between the index for June and July 2014 as cost of motor vehicles increased by 0.2 index points while prices of vegetables and other food products both showed a decrease of 0.1 index points.
Comparing sub-indices for the twelve divisions of consumption expenditure for the months of June and July 2014, the following major consumption items reinforced the downward trend: food and non-alcoholic beverages decreased by 0.8% to attain 107.2 points; furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance as well as miscellaneous goods and services decreased by 0.6% to hit 102.1 points and 104.7 points respectively; while communication costs declined by 0.3% to reach 99.5 points.
On the uptrend: transport charges rose 1.6% to 107.0 points; recreation and culture costs rose 0.5% to reach 106.3 points; clothing and footwear rates went up 0.3% to 109.8 points; alcoholic beverages and tobacco rose 0.2% to 116.5 points; and health items became more expensive by 0.1% to hit 108.9 points.
Sitting on the fence, cost of utilities (housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels), education costs and restaurants and hotel tariffs remained unchanged at 101.3 points, 103.3 points and 111.6 points respectively.
The year-on-year inflation rate is measured by the change in the CPI for July 2014 relative to July 2013.
It may be noted that the year-on-year inflation rate is the one that is used by policymakers on the island economy, as represented by the central bank, Bank of Mauritius, to decide critical monetary policy parameters such as changes in the key repo rate.
Finally, data released by the Statistics office also showed that Mauritius’ headline inflation rate for the twelve months ending July 2014 worked out to 3.9%, compared to 3.6% for the twelve months ending July 2013.
Image (restaurants.mu): Prices declined in the island economy as cost of food and non-alcoholic beverages came down by 0.8%, spurring a reduction in year-on-year inflation to 3.1% in July from 3.3% in June 2014.
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