By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

The prices of basic consumer goods hit a record high in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2006 compared to the same period the previous year mainly because of the up- to-100-percent increase in power bills and the higher cost of food.
The latest consumer price index, or CPI, reached 111.7, an increase of 11.1 index points from 100.6 in the fourth quarter 2005.
The CPI measures the changes in the price of goods and services purchased by CNMI consumers.
The latest CPI means that consumer purchasing power to buy rice, eggs, cereal, meat and canned goods, and pay power bills, shrank even further in 2006.
“It basically shows an increase in the price of goods. The food index, for example, went up by 2.7…But the biggest increase is for utilities,” said Glenn H. Manglona, statistician at the Department of Commerce’s central statistics division, referring to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s decision to hike its rate by up to 100 percent.
Commerce regularly checks the prices of basic goods in nine categories: food, alcoholic beverages, housing, utilities, apparel, transportation, medical care, recreation, education and communications, and other goods and services.
The results of these price surveys are compiled and presented by Commerce every quarter, and this serves as a resource for policy makers, businesses and individual consumers.
The 111.7 is the highest CPI since Commerce rebased the CPI in the first quarter of 2003. The rebasing involved bringing the index points for the nine groups of basic goods back to 100, based on household expenditures derived from a 1998 household income and expenditure survey.
The housing and utility index points reached 140.5 in the last quarter of 2006, compared to 102.2 in 2005.
The food category posted an index point of 102.3 in 2006, up from 99.6 in 2005. Sixty to 65 of the 123 consumer goods monitored by Commerce every quarter are food items.
The index points for apparel and medical care went up by less than 1, while all other categories saw a drop in index points from 0.1 to 1.7.
Commerce said the latest CPI didn’t see much change from the preceding quarter with 111.3 index points.