Jamaica recorded the ninth-highest 12-month rise in cost of living in the region at June this year, according to data from a regional United Nations economic body.

The inflation rate, at 10.9 per cent over the 12 months to June, ranks ninth among 33 nations in the Latin America and Caribbean region, according to the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2022, published late August by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, or ECLAC. And the region can expect more uncertainty going forward, according to the report, which measured consumer price index, or CPI, changes over the periods December 2020 to December 2021 and June 2021 to June 2022.

“Future inflation patterns in the region are closely linked to global inflation, as their determinants are very similar. For that reason, if the effects of the invasion of Ukraine on prices for raw materials persist, in particular for energy and food, inflation will remain high,” ECLAC said.

Venezuela had the highest inflation levels at 157 per cent, followed by Argentina at 65 per cent and Suriname at 55 per cent. Jamaica’s inflation rate ranks as the third- highest in the Caribbean subregion, behind Haiti at 29.2 per cent and Cuba at 28.9 per cent. Jamaica’s inflation rate at June this year was the highest level of price rise in the English-speaking Caribbean.

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