Rising global food and crude oil prices, high freight costs, local border restrictions and mandatory COVID-19 protocols result in higher prices of some food items

Expect the prices of goods and services to rise due to increasing food and oil prices and other factors like border restrictions and COVID protocols.

The Reserve Bank of Fiji says rising global food and crude oil prices, along with high freight costs, has started to filter into domestic prices, and local border restrictions and mandatory COVID-19 protocols have also resulted in higher prices of some food items.

The RBF says this has also raised the cost of doing business.

It says the Food and Agriculture Organization Food Price Index was around 26.1 percent higher on an annual basis in the first half of this year.

Similarly, energy prices have been rising globally, and the average crude oil prices in the year to June was 55 percent higher than the comparable period in 2020.

The annual inflation rate edged up from -1.6 percent in May to zero percent in June as the higher prices of food, transport, housing, and fuel perfectly offset the decline in prices of alcohol, tobacco, yaqona and other items.

The Reserve Bank says the year-end forecast for inflation of 1.5 percent is upward biased. This means that the RBF had projected for the inflation rate to be 1.5 percent for the end of this year however based on the factors, inflation is likely to be above 1.5 percent.