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DOC releases quarterly Consumer Price Index
The Statistics Division of the Department of Commerce has released the local Consumer Price Index (CPI) for this quarter, which reveals the addition of four new groups to the CPI starting with the first quarter of 2008 index.
The revised, more comprehensive CPI, which was funded by the Department of Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs, now includes nine groups. They are: food, alcoholic beverages, apparel, house, medical care, transportation, recreation, education, and other goods and services.
According to DOC, the revision has taken almost three years to complete, and the new revised CPI now has a number of significant improvements, meaning that it will provide an even more comprehensive measure of price movements than ever before.
DOC reports that for the first quarter of 2008, the CPI registered at 101.3 index points, meaning that overall, the cost of goods and services normally purchased by the local community rose by 1.3% compared to the end of 2007.
Leading the quarterly increases were the prices for housing, food and other goods and services which rose from 1.9% and 1.8%, respectively, to 2.7%.
No decreases or changes in the prices for the other groups in the CPI were noted although, compared to the beginning of 2007, costs of goods and services increased to 7.7%, the annual rate of inflation.
When compared year-to-year, prices for transportation and housing led all increases, with the high cost of fuel being blamed for the increases in the transportation group.
The lay out for the new system was carried out by CPI expert Brian Hannon from Washington DC who was contracted for the job by the US Census Bureau.
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