Today (Dec. 11), Minister for the Cabinet Office the Hon. Wayne L. Furbert, JP, MP, released the September 2020 Consumer Price Index (CPI) publication from the Department of Statistics.

The Minister explained, “In September 2020 consumers paid 0.7 per cent less than they did for the CPI basket of goods and services in September 2019. Between August 2020 and September 2020 the average cost of all goods and services declined 0.4 percentage points.”

Minister Furbert added, “The Rental sector continues to have a strong influence on the annual rate of inflation as prices declined by 4.2 per cent, as properties not subject to rent control contracted by 9.5 per cent year-over-year. This means that on average rents fell by 9.5% between September 2019 and September 2020. The Transport & Foreign Travel and Fuel & Power sectors also impacted strongly on the annual rate of inflation as price declines in these sectors were 5.3 per cent and 5.8 per cent, respectively.”

Additional areas of note in the September 2020 CPI are the following changes between August 2020 and September 2020:

• Rent declined 1.3 per cent.
• The average cost of properties not subject to rent control slid 2.9 per cent.
• The Transport & Foreign Travel sector decreased 1.3 per cent in September.
• The Health & Personal Care sector had no price movement for the month.
• The Tobacco & Liquor sector rose 0.9 per cent for the month as the average cost of wines and beer rose 2.7 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.
• The Food sector grew 0.3 per cent in September.
• Notable price changes occurred in the average cost of fresh and frozen turkeys (+5.7 per cent), bagged apples (+2.3 per cent) and roasting chickens (+1.8 per cent).
• The Education, Recreation, Entertainment & Reading was up 0.1 percent in September.

*Note: In summary, each month, the Government measures the annual rate of inflation and the monthly rate of inflation – Annual are changes from same month last year, and monthly are the changes from month to month. The September 2020 Consumer Price Index is available online at https://www.gov.bm/bermuda-business-statistics.