THE RETAIL PRICES Barbadians pay for some items have been falling, with the lower cost of energy leading the reduction.
That’s based on information released by the Barbados Statistical Service (BSS), which showed that up to January the biggest price drop was in the “fuel and light” category – 13.7 per cent.
According to the BSS, the Index of Retail Prices January 2015 was 168.3 points, a 1.6 per cent decrease over December’s 171.1 points. Some of the changes were marginal.
“Among the major groups . . . food decreased by 0.2 point or 0.1 per cent, alcoholic beverages and tobacco decreased by 0.7 point or 0.4 per cent, housing increased by 0.6 point or 0.4 per cent, fuel and light decreased by 22.6 points or 13.7 per cent,” it said.
“Household operations and supplies increased by 1.3 points or one per cent, clothing and footwear decreased by 1.1 points or 1.1 per cent, transportation decreased by 8.6 points or 5.7 per cent, medical and personal care increased by 0.2 point or 0.1 per cent, education, recreation and miscellaneous increased by 0.2 point or 0.1 per cent,” it added.
In the case of December’s numbers, there were index reductions for alcoholic beverages and tobacco, housing, fuel and light, household operations and supplies, clothing and footwear, transportation, and medical and personal care. There were increases for food, and education recreation and miscellaneous.
The BSS index is one means of measuring the cost of living Barbados. The information showed that since last year the cost of energy has been influencing the rise and fall of the index, which started to decline after November last year. (SC)
