Inflation rate rises

The month-on-comparable month inflation rate compared with June 2010 is 10.3 percent for June this year.

Items that continue to drive the change is mainly food.

According to the Bureau of Statistics, higher prices were recorded for bakery products, wheat products, cereals, fresh and preserved meat, dairy products, spices, restaurant meals and market items such as French bean, okra, local tomato, pumpkin, dalo, cassava and onion.

The bureau said that the food prices increased by 1.5 percent last month.

There was a 0.5 percent increase for some alcoholic spirits, warm beer and cigarettes.

Lower prices were recorded for house paint, crockery and jewellery.

Meanwhile in the latest Reserve Bank of Fiji quarterly report, it has highlighted that aside from the one-off impact of the electricity tariff rate restructure in November 2010 and the adjustment in commercial electricity tariff rates effective from April this year, further pressure on prices are expected to stem from the current escalation in oil and food prices.

The RBF stated that inflation is expected to be 7.0 percent at the end of this year.

Story by: Vijay Narayan