The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has shown a 3.4% increase year-on-year in April, data released by the Ministry of Development Planning & Statistics (MDPS) show.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI changed 0.1% in April and stood at 107.7, MDPS said on Wednesday.
A month-on-month analysis of CPI shows the index pertaining to the ‘food and beverages group’ went up by 1.4% in April.
The miscellaneous goods and services sector index has gone up by 0.6%, while the clothing and footwear’ by 0.2%, and the ‘recreation and culture’ by 0.1 % in April.
A decline in prices has been noticed in the ‘restaurants and hotels’ segment by 1.1%, ‘health’ by 0.9%, ‘housing, water, electricity and gas’ and 'communication' by 0.1% each.
The other groups - ‘tobacco’, ‘furniture and household equipment’, ‘transport’, and ‘education’ have remained flat at the last month’s price level.
A comparison of the CPI in April with the previous-year period points to a rise in the general index by 3.4%.
This year-on-year price surge is primarily due to the increasing prices seen in the seven groups namely ‘recreation and culture’ by 12.1%, ‘education’ by 7.1%, ‘housing, water, electricity and gas’ by 5.2%, ‘transport’ by 1.7%, ‘miscellaneous hoods and services’ by 1.6%, ‘furniture and household equipment’ by 1%, and ‘communication’ by 0.1%.
Also, there has been a decrease in price levels in other groups - ‘health’ by 1% ‘food and beverages’ by 0.6%, “clothing and footwear” and “restaurants and hotels” by 0.1% each.
The CPI of April excluding ‘housing, water, electricity and gas’ group stood at 105.6, an increase by 0.2% when compared to the index of March 2 and 2.8% compared to April last year.