THE cost of living has shot up by 20 per cent in the past 12 months, statisticians said yesterday.
Inflation, as measured by the National Statistical Office, rose by 6.9 per cent in the three months to the end of March at an annual rate of 20.7 per cent.
But economists generally regard the NSO’s statistics as an under-statement of “real’’ inflation.
The “baskets’’ for food, drinks, tobacco and betelnut provided the biggest hits on the average householder’s hip-pocket nerve. Food costs rose by 8.6 per cent in the March quarter and shot up by 23.7 per cent in the 12 months from March last year.
The category for drinks, tobacco and betelnut was nearly as bad, rising 7.9 per cent from January to March and by 22.2 per cent in the 12 months period to March 31.
Other spending habits that hurt the inflation rate were “household equipment and operation’’ at 6.7 per cent and 19.3 per cent over 12 months; transport and communication 3.3 per cent and 19 per cent and “miscellaneous’’ at 10 per cent for the March quarter and an overall rise of 17.6 per cent from March last year to March this year. The March quarter rise of 6.9 per cent represented a doubling from the rate of increase for the December quarter of 3.5 per cent. Taking the annual inflation rate for the March quarter this year, it had doubled when compared to the March quarter 2002 increase of 10.5 per cent.
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Post Courier