Consumer Price Index for February shows 1.7% increase in expenditure

The Consumer Price Index for the month of February, released earlier this week by the Statistical Institute of Belize, indicates that there is a one point seven percent increase in expenditure when compared to the same period in 2013.  There has been a three percent upsurge in the food index, primarily due to higher prices for vegetables and meats.  Similarly, the cost per pound of cabbage, sweet pepper, tomato and black and red kidney beans rose by twenty cents, while ground beef went up from four dollars and ninety-two cents to five dollars and fifteen cents.  Butane also shot up by ten percent per hundred-pound cylinder due to higher acquisition costs.