BOJ says updated basket of goods will better capture movement in consumer prices

4:43 pm, Tue October 13, 2020

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Courtney Allen, Senior Director in the Sector Analysis Department at the Central Bank

The Bank of Jamaica says the new basket of goods used to measure inflation will provide a better picture of monthly movement in consumer prices.

Data will be collected more frequently for certain items.

“We know our raw foods, our vegetables and starchy foods that those prices tend to be very volatile. You can have prices moving very quickly across even one month from $60 to $120. So what they have done, they have decided that they will now do two collection of those prices. The other one has to do with prices for petrol. That also can show a lot of variation as well as airfares, so those prices will be collected twice,” Courtney Allen, Senior Director in the Sector Analysis Department at the Central Bank, explained.