THE high price of yaqona, vegetables, fuel, alcohol and tobacco has pushed Fiji’s headline inflation upwards standing at 5.2 per cent in October.
The Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) Economic Review for the month ended November 2018, the country’s headline inflation increased to 5.2 percent in October from 4.6 percent in September.
This was largely due to supply side shocks that led to higher prices for kava and vegetables when compared to last year, as well as increased prices for alcoholic beverages, tobacco and fuel due to duty changes and global commodity price movements.
Over the month, consumer prices also increased by 0.6 percent as prices of fruits and vegetables increased coupled with the impact of the upward revisions of fuel prices in mid-October.
Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services rise and consequently the purchasing power of a currency falls.
This means as inflation rises, it decreases the amount of goods that your money can buy and decreases its purchasing power.
However the central bank noted that core inflation for October remained below 2.0 per cent.
Inflation is expected to subside to around 3.5 percent in 2019 and 3.0 per cent in 2020.
