Category: Statistics

The overall Retail Price Index was measured at 105.9 in the first quarter of 2020. This is unchanged from the rate of the fourth quarter of 2019, and an increase from 104.1 in the first quarter of 2019. This means that retail prices rose, on average, by 1.7% over the past year, between the first quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020.

The annual price inflation rate of 1.7% is a smaller increase than the rate from last quarter (Q4 2019), when the annual price inflation rate was measured at 2.1% (see Chart 1).

Chart 1. Annual price inflation rate, St Helena, Q1 2013 to Q1 2020

During Q1 2020, items that made an upward contribution towards the headline rate of 1.7% included the cost of a vehicle purchase, tobacco and fuel. Likewise, there were also items which made a downward contribution towards the rate, including eggs and local fish.

The full Statistical Bulletin can be found on the St Helena Government website here: https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/st-helena/statistics/statistics-reports-and-publications/, detailed data can be accessed in Excel format from the ‘Inflation’ file at: https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/st-helena/statistics/

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SHG
20 April 2020

• Latest rate of annual inflation estimated to be 2.1% between fourth quarter of 2019 and fourth quarter of 2018
• Compared to a year ago, the largest increase in prices has been in ‘Transport’ and ‘Alcohol and Tobacco’ categories
• Average prices of items in each category went up or stayed the same compared to a year ago, apart from ‘Household Energy’

Estimates of the price inflation rate and the Retail Price Index has today been released by the St Helena Statistics Office. The latest rate of annual price inflation is estimated to be 2.1%, between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the fourth quarter of 2018. This is a decrease from the rate in the previous quarter (Q3, 2019), when the annual price inflation rate was measured at 2.9%. The quarterly price inflation rate of 0.5% (i.e. Q4 2019 compared to Q3 2019) is a slight increase in the rate from last quarter, when it was 0.4%.

Although there have been increases in freight rates on the MV Helena over the last year, the lower annual rate of price inflation is influenced by the relatively low price inflation rates in the United Kingdom (1.5%) and South Africa (3.6%), and the slight weakening of the Rand, from around 17 Rand per pound at the start of the year to just under 19 Rand per pound at the end. The improved exchange rate means that St Helena can buy South African products for less, and the easing of external inflationary pressures has helped offset increased freight prices for some imported goods.

Compared to a year ago, the largest increase in prices has been in ‘Transport’ (7.1%), an effect of the increase in fuel prices and the price of the vehicle component during quarter 4 2019. The second largest increase occurred in ‘Alcohol and Tobacco’ (3.8%). Both of these increases are consistent with the recent changes in import duty rates on vehicles and tobacco products.

The average prices of items in each category went up or stayed the same compared to a year ago, apart from ‘Household Energy’, reflecting the unchanged price of domestic electricity since 2016 (one of the highest weighted items in the index) and a small price decrease in gas cylinders compared to Q4 2018. The annual average increase of items in the ‘Food’ category (1.4%) was also quite low compared with last quarter, when it was 4.0%.

The full Statistical Bulletin can be found on the St Helena Government website here: https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Stats-Bulletin-2-2020-Prices.pdf detailed data can be accessed in Excel format from the ‘Inflation’ file at: https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/st-helena/statistics/

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15 January 2020

• Statistics Office releases new estimates of average gross incomes from employment for the 2018/19 financial year
• Estimated median annual before-tax income fell to £8,410 –  a fall of just under 5% compared to 2017/18, when inflation is taken into account

The Statistics Office has today released new estimates of average gross incomes from employment for the 2018/19 financial year, including slight revisions to the estimates for previous years. The estimated median annual before-tax income fell to £8,410. Although this is a decrease of just under 1% compared to the previous year, between 2017/18 and 2018/19 prices rose on average by 4.1% and when this is taken into account the ‘real’ level of wages fell by 4.8%.

The number of people above the income tax threshold from earnings from employment also fell, from 1,591 in 2017/18 to 1,448 in 2018/19. Less tax-payers and lower average incomes will tend to reduce tax revenues, which will have a knock-on impact on the services that Government can provide. A larger working age and tax paying population on St Helena will be more conducive to an increase in economic activity and social prosperity – the 2020 Labour Market Strategy warns of the risks of a smaller working age population and provides measures to reduce the negative impacts on the economy, Government revenues and public service provision.

The estimates are derived from records maintained by the Income Tax Office using methodology consistent with previous releases; this year an improvement has been made to better eliminate part-year incomes from the analysis. Estimates measure gross before-tax incomes (wages) of persons in regular employment on St Helena, reported through the Pay-As-You-Earn system. They exclude company and self-employment incomes, incomes of Technical Cooperation Officers, investment income, and other sources of income such as benefits or the Basic Island Pension. They also exclude part-time and part-year incomes, as far as they can be identified. All annual estimates are rounded to the nearest £10.

More detailed statistics on incomes, including the differences between lower and higher paid employees, and the differences in incomes between men and women, are available in the latest Statistical Bulletin No. 1 for 2020 here:

https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Stats-Bulletin-1-2020-Wages.pdf

A data file (Incomes.xls) is available at: http://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/statistics/

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13 January 2020

The Statistics Office is requesting your help and feedback to improve the quality of service they provide to publish statistics about St Helena that help people make better decisions.

If you use statistics about St Helena, there is a short survey that you can take. The survey should take no more than ten minutes to complete, and it would be preferred if you could do the survey online at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/St-Helena-Statistics-Feedback

However, if you would like to complete a survey on paper, hard copies are available at the Public Library in Jamestown. Alternatively, you can download and print a form from the St Helena Government Website at: http://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/statistics

If you download the form, please either bring the completed form to the Statistics Office at The Castle in Jamestown or email a scanned version to statistics@sainthelena.gov.sh. If you would prefer to give us feedback in person, please visit us, call on (+290) 22138, or send an email.

The survey will be open continuously, but if you wish to provide feedback it would be helpful if you could complete a survey by Thursday, 2 January 2020.

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SHG
3 December 2019