26 Apr 2018

Drop in Tokelau consumer price index

8:16 am on 26 April 2018

A drop in airfares has helped push down prices in Tokelau in the first part of the year.

Tokelau's quarterly consumer price index, or CPI, fell by 0.9 percent in the March 2018 quarter, according to the National Statistics Office.

The index measures the rate of price change of goods and services bought by Tokelau households in each of the three atolls' stores.

The Statistics Office said the largest downward change in prices had come from the transport group, down 7.3 percent.

This has been attributed to a drop in Air New Zealand airfares, which the office said could have been partly a result of competition with the newly established Samoa Airways.

The food and non-alcoholic beverages group also made a downward turn in prices this quarter, with prices down 1.5 percent overall.

The largest upward change in prices came in the furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance group, up 2.7 percent.

In the year to the March 2018 quarter, the CPI of Tokelau rose 8.9 percent.

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