Consumer Price Index for (top to bottom) St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire. (CBS infographic)
SABA/ST. EUSTATIUS--Consumer goods and services in St. Eustatius were 1.2 per cent more expensive in the first three months of 2020 than one year previously. Prices also went up in Saba and Bonaire by 0.4 per cent and one per cent year-on-year, respectively. The Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) reported this on the basis of the consumer price index (CPI) for the Caribbean Netherlands.
Consumer prices in St. Eustatius were 1.2 per cent higher in the first quarter of this year than in the same period in 2019. The year-on-year increase was one per cent in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Electricity prices went up by 1.6 per cent between January and March 2020, and the prices of books, audio and video equipment, and airfare increased as well.
Relative to the final quarter of 2019, the prices of furniture went down by 3.4 per cent. Prices of footwear showed a decrease of 8.8 per cent over the same period, the CBS said.
Saba witnessed a less rapid increase of consumer prices. Consumers in Saba paid on average 0.4 per cent more for goods and services in the first three months of this year than in the same period in 2019. In the fourth quarter of 2019 prices went up by 0.8 per cent in Saba.
The prices for toiletries were nine per cent lower in Saba in the first quarter of 2020, while the prices of books and audio and video equipment were higher than one year previously.
The price increase of goods and services in Bonaire was lower than in the fourth quarter of 2019, when it was at 2.2 per cent. The slower increase in the average price level of goods and services in the first months of this year was mainly caused by the price developments for electricity and water, according to the CBS.
Electricity was 14.1 per cent and water 12.7 per cent cheaper in the first quarter of this year than one year previously. Gasoline and diesel fuel prices, on the other hand, drove up the average price level in Bonaire. Gasoline was nearly 20.8 per cent and diesel fuel more than 29 per cent more expensive than in the first quarter of 2019.
The price developments for fruit and vegetables in Bonaire had an upward effect on the CPI as well. In early 2020, fresh fruit was 22.9 per cent more expensive than in the same quarter last year. However, relative to the final quarter of 2019, vegetable prices were down by 2.5 per cent and prices for fruit by 3.9 per cent, the stat office reported.
The prices of gasoline and diesel fuel in the Caribbean Netherlands are generally higher than in Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten, the CBS said.
The largest price gap between Bonaire and Curaçao measured over the past 12 months was in February 2020, when one litre of gasoline was on average US $0.33 more expensive in Bonaire. The smallest price gap was seen in May 2019, when the price of gasoline in Bonaire was $0.04 higher.
Diesel fuel was slightly cheaper in Bonaire than in Aruba, but more expensive than in Curaçao for most of 2019. Statia has the highest price for diesel fuel per litre in the Dutch Caribbean, the CBS said.
