Consumer Prices Up Again; Highest Prices in Orange Walk Town

Consumer Prices are up again, in fact they rose by four percent in January. According to the Statistical Institute of Belize the increases were seen in fuel, food, L.P.G., restaurants and even cleaning supplies. Belizeans paid more for basic goods last month when compared to January of 2021. Significant increases were recorded in products such as chicken wings, pigtail, vegetable oil, and even limes. The transportation sector saw a substantial increase of sixteen point two percent, with the price of fuel, new motor vehicles and international airfare recording increases. Belizeans also paid more for water, electricity and furniture. Where were prices highest? In Orange Walk town, at almost six percent. Diana Trejo of S.I.B. says higher prices do cause people to reign in their spending.

Diana Trejo, Acting Director General, S.I.B

Diana Trejo

“As a consumer myself, ourselves as consumers, having the information we have, you would want to be mindful of the categories and items seeing the most increase. So, if perhaps I am a consumer that I use a lot of fuel, I drive a lot, I might want to cut down on how much fuel I use and drive less. Persons might make adjustments like going out less on the weekends and things like that so that they can consume less fuel. I might want to be mindful of the brand of products I buy, because some brands are more expensive than others. You know that food items are the ones we see going up a lot. So, as a consumers you might want to substitute certain products that are seeing the bigger price increases with others that might not be going up so much. And, with respect to the cost of living, it is two different measures. It is possible to have a low inflation and a high cost of living, because the cost of living has to do with the overall price of all the basic goods and services that consumers consume. But they are closely related, because as your inflation goes up obviously your cost of living will go up.”