Tokelau’s June quarter CPI up a little

Apia, 31 July 2014
 
The consumer price index (CPI) of Tokelau increased 4.4 percent for the year to June 2014. The Tokelau National Statistics Office released these data today.

“The largest group contribution to the annual increase of 4.4 percent continues to be from the Alcoholic beverages and tobacco group, up 16.0 percent,” National Statistician Kele Lui said.

“Cigarettes and beer were the biggest drivers of the increase during the year: their prices went up 18.9 and 18.1 percent, respectively.”

During the September 2013 quarter, cigarette prices were deliberately increased. This continues to have an enduring effect on the annual CPI, even though over the June 2014 quarter cigarette prices went up only 1.9 percent.

The largest downward contribution for the year to June came from the group Miscellaneous goods and services (down 5.8 percent): the key contributors were deodorant and nappies.

“The CPI has increased for the year to June, but the price of Food and non-alcoholic beverages went up only slightly. Some food items have become more expensive. But this was offset by others becoming cheaper,” Mr Lui said.

For the June 2014 quarter itself, the CPI rose by only 0.1 percent.
Kele1
Mr Kele Lui, the Tokelau National Statistician who released the latest CPI data.

Prices increased for the following items: washing powder (up 42.2 percent), cooking oil (up 31.7 percent), cheese-flavoured corn snacks (up 22.5 percent), and canned fruit salad (up 45.1 percent).

Overall, the Food and non-alcoholic beverages group was down 1.2 percent. This reflects lower prices for bottled water (down 21.6 percent), lamb and mutton (down 6.1 percent), milk powder (down 12.0 percent), and chocolate-flavoured drink powder (down 12.4 percent). The price of paint also decreased (down 10.6 percent) in the second quarter of 2014.

Beer prices stayed the same over this June quarter, but experienced significant cost increases in the previous quarter. This was highlighted in re-calculating the March quarter movement, which has been revised to an increase of 0.2 percent from an originally published decrease of 0.2 percent.

The full information release on the Tokelau CPI, including tables and technical notes, is available from http://TokelauNSO.tk
Tokelau is one of the world’s most geographically isolated countries, and home to 1,383 people. The CPI measures the rate of price change of goods and services purchased by Tokelau households in each one of the three atolls’ stores. 

[Ends] For media enquires please contact:
Jaap (“iapi”) Jasperse, PhD
Statistics Adviser,
Tokelau National Statistics Office
Phone +685 729 4913
Email: yahpnz@gmail.com