For the month of September 2011, the Index of Consumer Prices (August 2004 = 100) stood at 188.2 against 187.0 in the previous month, thus registering a monthly increase of 0.6% and an annual variation positive of 10.4%. The monthly variation comes in particular from the inflation shown by the consumption functions : "Food, Beverages and Tobacco" (0.7%), "Rent Housing, Energy and Water" (0.9%), "Health" (1.2%) and "Leisure entertainment, Education and Culture" (1.2%).

The consumption function "Food, Beverages and Tobacco" takes its rise in the increase in the prices of products such as : ground corn (2.3%), bread (1.9%), salt herring (4.1%), banana (1.8%) , onion (1.9%), malanga (4.3%), grapefruit (3.6%), papaya (4.3%), coffee powder (2.9%) and cocoa powder (4.2%).

For its part, the growth of the index of "Rent Housing, Energy and Water" is mainly due to the rental prices of Housing and of propane which increased by 1.7% and 1.2% respectively.

The upward trend observed in the "Health" takes its rise mainly in the positive variation of corrective glasses (2.6%) and fees paid to doctors (2.4%).

Finally, the increase in the cost of "Leisure, Entertainment, Education and Culture" is due to higher tuition fees (1.3%), textbooks (1.9%) and school bag (4.5%).

Source : Haitian Institute of Statistics and Information (IHSI)

HL/ HaitiLibre