Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad in Parliament yesterday [Source: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji/Facebook]

The average inflation from January to October was around 1.7 percent, while the recent year-on-year inflation for October 2023 stood at 4 percent.

This has been highlighted by Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad in Parliament yesterday.

Professor Prasad says these are the official numbers that have been released by the Bureau of Statistics.

He adds that inflation is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

“CPI is based on a representative basket of goods and services that is purchased by the consumer with different weights. Different items have different weights assigned to individual products and services based on their importance. So right now, with the Bureau of Statistics, for example, the CPI base that we are using now is the 2014 base.”

Professor Prasad says the government, in the 2023–2024 budget, introduced three rates of VAT, which were zero, nine, and 15 percent.

However, Prasad says they kept the zero rating on all 21 food items.

He adds that the prices of certain goods have also gone down due to the reduction in freight costs.