Retail Prices Index report for March 2019
Produced by the
Statistics Jersey (Strategic Policy, Planning and Performance)
Authored by
Statistics Jersey
and published on
24 Apr 2019
Prepared internally, no external cost
Summary
The All Items Retail Prices Index (RPI) is the main measure of inflation in Jersey. It measures the change from quarter to quarter in the price of the goods and services purchased by an average household in Jersey.
The March 2019 report shows:
- during the twelve months to March 2019 the All Items Retail Prices Index (RPI) for Jersey increased by 3.6% to stand at 177.3 (June 2000 = 100)
- almost all groups saw prices increase, on average, on an annual basis
- the Housing, Household services, Motoring and Leisure Services groups were the largest contributors to the overall annual increase in the RPI
- key drivers in the Housing group were the increased cost of house purchase due to higher mortgage interest payments, following an increase in the Bank of England base rate, and increased rental costs
- the increase in the RPI over the twelve months to December 2018 was 3.9%; hence, the annual rate of inflation fell by 0.3 percentage points (pp) in the latest quarter
- the fall in the annual rate was largely due a number of groups seeing lower rates of price increase over the year to March 2019 compared to December 2018
- underlying inflation, as measured by the annual change in RPI(Y), increased by 3.4% over the twelve months to March 2019
- over the twelve months to March 2019:
- RPI(X) increased by 3.3%
- RPI Pensioners increased by 3.1%
- RPI Low Income increased by 3.3%
- the latest annual rates of increase of all consumer price indices were lower than in December 2018
- the rate of inflation in Jersey over the twelve months to March 2019 was almost double that of the comparable measure for the UK
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