7 News Belize

The Cost of Living Ticking Up
posted (May 27, 2020)
And while many are lining up for free food - for those still buying, what are prices like? From the Statistical Institute, we have a snapshot of the cost of living countrywide, and where in the country it was the cheapest to live during the first quarter of this year.

According to the SIB, Orange Walk had the highest cost of living, while Punta Gorda had the lowest. Here's how Statistician Melvin Perez explained why during today's press conference:

Melvin Perez - Statistician II, SIB
"The inflation rate for the month of April 2020 stood at -0.02%. This means that overall, the cost of regularly purchased goods and services has decreased relatively small by 0.02%, when compared to April 2019. Before we look at all the major categories affecting the inflation rate of -0.02%, let's look at the all-items consumer price index, which summarizes all categories of goods and services for the past 5 years. With our main emphasis being the month of April, we noticed that both April 2019 and April 2020, recorded a consumer price index of 105.3, which is why the decrease for the period was relatively small of 0.02%. This does not indicate that there was no change during this period, but rather, the increases and decreases offset each other, which we will see throughout the presentation."

"Looking at the major categories affecting the inflation rate, the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels had an increase of 0.8%. The food and non-alcoholic beverages category had a decrease of 0.5%. The transport category had a decrease of 0.9%. And now, I must say that the transport category was the main category exerting downward pressure on the overall consumer price index And for the purpose of this presentation, we group the remaining goods and services into the all other categories of goods and services, which had an increase of 0.2%."

"It can be clearly seen that the decrease in the transport category was partially offset by the increase in housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels. And the decrease in the food and non-alcoholic beverage category was partially balanced by the all-other category of goods and services, which had a decrease of 0.2%."

"First, let's look at the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, which had an increase of 0.8%. This increase was mainly due to a rise in home rental costs, which went up by 1.2%, as higher prices in Orange Walk Town, Belize City, San Ignacio, and Santa Elena Towns, Dangriga Town, and Punta Gorda Town were recorded. This increase, however, was partially offset by a significant decrease in the liquefied petroleum gas prices, which went down by 13.9%."

"Since the food and non-alcoholic beverages category is one of the categories affected by the pandemic, COVID-19, I want for us to take a look at how prices within this category, has been affected for the month of April 2020, when compared to March of 2020, as this is the period when the COVID-19 in Belize was at its peak. If you look at the graph, you can see, that there was a spike from March of 2020 to April of 2020. This spike is an increase of 0.4% in prices within the category."

"At the municipality level, it can be clearly seen that Orange Walk Town experienced the highest monthly increase in consumer prices, with an inflation rate of 2.1%. Consumers in this town saw an above-average increase in prices for food items home rental cost, laundry services, and maintenance and repair of motor vehicles. Meanwhile, in the south, Punta Gorda Town experienced the lowest inflation rate, with prices going down by 1.9%. Consumers in this town saw greater than the average reduction in food items and women's clothing and footwear."

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