Annual food inflation in the Maldives has eased from a mid-year peak, falling to 5.7 percent in August from 7.3 percent in June, according to official consumer price data published by the Maldives Bureau of Statistics and compiled by the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA).
The figure measures the change in prices of food and beverages compared with the same month a year earlier. It stood at 1.2 percent in January and 1.9 percent in March before climbing steadily from April to reach its high point in June.
Malé and the atolls
In Malé, food and beverage inflation peaked at 7.45 percent in June, then dropped to 5.5 percent in July. It edged back up to 5.8 percent in August, the data shows.
In the atolls, the rate held at 7.1 percent in both June and July before falling to 5.6 percent in August. Atoll households had started the year with food inflation of 2.4 percent, while prices in Malé in January were slightly lower than a year earlier.
Overall prices fall on cheaper tobacco
Headline inflation slowed more sharply. The overall consumer price index rose 0.76 percent in the year to August, down from 2.31 percent in July, and fell 1.15 percent compared with July, the statistics bureau said.
The bureau attributed the monthly fall mainly to tobacco and areca nut prices, which dropped 22.63 percent after changes to import duties on tobacco products took effect at the beginning of July. Lower electricity unit prices and international airfares also pulled the index down.
Food prices, however, continued to rise month on month. Food and beverages rose 0.96 percent nationally in August, with milk, dairy products and eggs up 1.99 percent, fruit and vegetables each up 1.19 percent and fish up 0.83 percent.
The bureau is scheduled to publish consumer price figures for September on 26 October.