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CDB Report: Inflation reaches 5-year high in BVI last year

CDB President Dr William Warren Smith. (Photo by Davion Smith/BVI News)

The Caribbean Development Bank’s economic review of the BVI for 2018 has shown that the territory’s inflation rate increased higher than it has ever been in half-a-decade.

“Inflation ticketed up to 2.1 percent in 2018, above the historical five-year average of 1.3 percent.”

The CDB said general price increases were observed in housing and utilities, communications, food, and transportation.

“This partly reflected higher demand related to reconstruction activity,” the CDB said i the report published this month.

According to the report dubbed the British Virgin Islands Economic Breif 2018, the rate of inflation was a relatively meagre 1.9 percent in 2014.

The territory’s inflation rate shrunk to 0.9 percent in 2015 and marginally rose to 1.1 percent in 2016.

It saw another marginal increase of 1.2 percent before making a consideraable leap to 2.1 percent last year.

This arguably glaring increase comes a month after the CDB recorded an increase in real gross domestic product (GDP) for the territory for 2018.

As a lender, the CDB typically monitors the economy of its borrowing countries. The CDB loaned $65 million to the BVI for rehabilitation and reconstruction following the 2017 disasters.

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8 Comments

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  1. :) says:

    When the GDP increase was reported NDP supporters celebrated even though the increase was not a result of a thriving economy. Let’s see what they have to say now. “The CDB said general price increases were observed in housing and utilities, communications, food, and transportation.” Let this sink in for a moment. The cries of the people have been validated too bad NDP believed things were rosy since they were still eating from their golden plates while the cost of living has been overwhelming a lot of their constituents.

    Like 16
    Dislike 1
    • Well well says:

      This is not a ndp/vip issue. The suppliers of the bvi raised the cost of goods more than what the customers could afford. Thats the prob.

      Like 5
      Dislike 5
      • Blah says:

        It is an NDP issue because they twice promised consumer protection laws. The suppliers would be bound by the law NDP was supposed to enact.

  2. Yep says:

    Ndp . thanks

    Like 3
    Dislike 1
  3. Ppl do research says:

    Inflation is a normal thing and a 1% or 2% increase per year is not bad. Places like Zimbabwe experience hyperinflation where inflation rate exceeds 500% annually, thus their currency is of no value and gold is king. Im curious as to how they calculated the inflation rate whether they used CPI or GDP.

    Like 2
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  4. My goodness says:

    We have a new Government, NDP is no longer in Government. Things happened,in order to move forward, stop throwing the only blame game on NDP. What is in the past is the past, you never look back.

    Like 1
    Dislike 5
  5. Anonymous says:

    And today, it is the responsibility of the ruling government to enact economic policies that will reverse inflation, the cost of living, price gouging in food and rent in particular.

    But who dares hold their breath? The power brokers and those who set and benefit from the labour and wages of the middle and poor are the businesses. There is no legislation to tame that greedy beast.

    Was NDP successful in passing consumer protection legislation?

  6. Sally says:

    You don’t need a report to tell you inflation is rising in the VI. If you shop for food, which everyone has to, you will note your money buys less each time. The cost of renting an apartment has become ridiculous. It’s time for Civil Servants increment. Many of them have been buying their own supplies to do Government work, because the job still had to be done even though supplies were not provided. In some departments Officers have to walk with their own drinking water.

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