Today, the Minister for the Cabinet Office the Hon. Wayne L. Furbert, JP, MP, released the March 2020 Consumer Price Index report.
The Minister explained, “In March 2020 consumers paid 0.3 per cent more for the CPI basket of goods and services than they did in March 2019. Between February 2020 and March 2020 the average cost of all goods and services fell 0.2 percentage points.”
The Health & Personal Care sector was the largest contributor to the year-over-year change, increasing 4.3 per cent. In addition, the Food sector and the Tobacco & Liquor sector contributed to the rise in the annual rate of inflation as price shifts in these sectors were 2.3 per cent and 3.9 per cent, respectively.
Between February 2020 and March 2020 the Tobacco & Liquor sector rose 0.6 per cent, as the average price of wine and spirits increased 2.1 per cent and 0.7 per cent, respectively. On average, food prices fell 0.3 per cent for the month. Among the items contributing to the decline were lettuce (-10.8 per cent), whipped cream (-8.8 per cent), fresh & frozen boneless pork loin (-7.4 per cent) and fresh & frozen boned pork loin (-5.3 per cent).
The March 2020 Consumer Price Index is available online at www.gov.bm/bermuda-business-statistics.