SIB Releases Latest Statistics
The Consumer Price Index for the month of June has been released by the Statistical Institute of Belize. Recent figures indicate that plummeting fuel and international airfares have reduced consumer prices by negative point eight percent. When compared to the same period in 2014, prices per gallon of regular, premium and diesel fuel were down by eighteen and twenty-five percent, respectively. Similarly, the cost of international travel was down by almost twenty-five percent. Food prices, on the other hand, reduced negligibly by zero point one percent when compared to June 2014. The highest drop however, was recorded in the cost of red kidney beans, down by a third when compared to the same period last year. In the area of ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’, Liquefied Petroleum Gas continues to record lower prices for this year, falling from one hundred and fifteen dollars in June 2014 to one hundred and nine dollars in June 2015. Electricity rates, which were reduced in January of this year, were almost nine percent lower than in June of last year.