KEY FACTS

In the March 2023 quarter compared with December 2022 quarter, the All Group Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 1.5 percent with the Underlying CPI increasing by 1.7 percent.

Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco index increased by 2.4 percent, factored by;

• Alcohol (up by 3.8 percent)
• Cigarettes (rose by 0.6 percent)

Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages group index increased by 2.2 percent, factored by;

• Food (up by 3.8 percent)
• Non-alcoholic beverages (rose by 1.1 percent)

Restaurants and Hotels index increased by 2.1 per cent, factored by:

• Takeout foods and meals consumed at restaurants, cafes by 2.2 per cent

Miscellaneous index increased by 2.0 per cent, factored by:

• Higher prices for some items within the ‘Personal Care group’ of 3.6 per cent

Health group index increased by 1.7 per cent

Transport group index increased by 1.6 per cent.

Other increases came from the Household Contents and Maintenance group up by 0.8 per cent, Housing group and Recreation & Culture group up by 0.5 per cent

All these increases were offset by a decrease in the Clothing & Footwear group of 0.4 per cent subjective to lower prices of footwear’s. 

From the March 2018 quarter to the March 2023  quarter, the CPI inflation rate was 12.1 percent with the Underlying CPI of 9.3 percent.

More on Consumers Price Index…

Information about CPI

The Consumer Price Index covers price changes of the basket of goods and services consumed by all households on Rarotonga (the main island).

The base year is 2019. Prices are collected for 199 items and from selected outlets around Rarotonga. Individual prices are combined using weights from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) conducted in 2015/2016. The HIES information was used to select the basket of goods and services.

The inclusion of an underlying measure is a recent improvement and it is published at the same time as the CPI. The underlying measure excludes items of a highly volatile nature, items that are subject to policy changes.

It excludes some items fruits, vegetables, meat and fish, electricity rates, purchases of new and used motor vehicles, petrol and diesel, international airfares and domestic airfares.

The CPI is calculated as chain-linked Jevons indices (change in the geometric average price). At the higher level, indices will be calculated with standard Laspeyres-type aggregation.