IN NUMBERS: Jersey prices continue to rise at a steady pace as travel and food costs climb

The cost of living in Jersey is rising at the same pace as it was three months ago, new inflation figures have revealed.

The figures, provided by Statistics Jersey, show that prices were 2.8% higher in December than a year ago, the same increase was seen in September.

The data comes from the latest report on the Retail Prices Index, which was published this morning.

Pictured: The rate at which prices have gone up this year. (Statistics Jersey)

The Retail Prices Index is the main way inflation is measured in Jersey. It tracks how much the prices of goods and services bought by households have changed over time, and is often used as a measure of the island’s cost of living.

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What’s gone up over the past year?

Tobacco: up 8.7%
Fares and other travel: up 5.6%
Fuel and light: up 5.6%
Leisure services (e.g. entertainment, sport, holidays): up 5.2%
Alcoholic drinks: up 5.1%
Catering (e.g. eating out, takeaways): up 4.9%
Motoring (e.g. vehicles and petrol): up 4.3%
Food (e.g. shop bought): up 3.7%
Personal goods and services (e.g. toiletries, dental/medical/beauty treatments): up 3.4%
Household services (e.g. school fees, phone bills, subscriptions): up 3.3%
Leisure goods (e.g. books, games, gardening items): up 2.3%
Clothing and footwear: up 0.9%

Pictured: Over the past year, prices have risen across most spending categories. (Statistics Jersey)

What’s gone down?

Housing (e.g. rents and mortgage-interest payments): down 0.2%
Household goods (e.g. furniture, appliances): down 1.3%

What’s driving the change?

The increase in the annual inflation rate by 2.8% from the year before, was due to “upward contribution” from several groups, most notably leisure services, motoring, household services, and food, according to the report.

It read: “Leisure services, which includes entertainment, sport and leisure fees, and off-island holidays was the price group that made the largest contribution to the annual rate of inflation, contributing +0.5 percentage points (pp) to the rate.”

Pictured: The rise in the annual rate of inflation was driven by several categories, with the biggest contribution coming from leisure services. (Statistics Jersey)

Impact on vulnerable islanders

The report also looks at how vulnerable islanders – such as pensioners and those on low incomes – are faring.

It does this by looking at two specific measures of inflation: RPI Pensioners and RPI Low Income.

Pictured: RPI Pensioners increased by 3.9% and RPI Low Income increased by 3.6% annually. (Statistics Jersey)

These are calculated on the different spending patterns of pensioner households and the lowest-income households in Jersey.

Over the past 12 months:

RPI Pensioners rose by 3.9% (from 4.1% in September)
RPI Low Income rose by 3.6% (from 4% in September)

How do we compare to the UK?

The rate of inflation in Jersey, as measured by the RPI, was 0.8 percentage points lower than the UK’s comparable CPIH figure (Consumer Prices Index), which stood at 3.6% in December.