Prices for alcoholic beverages, medical care and other goods and services led the quarterly increases, rising 6.5, 2.8 and 1.7 percent.
Partially offsetting those increases were declines in education and communication, down 3.6 percent, with fractional decreases in the housing and apparel categories.
The year-to-year comparisons showed that prices for other goods and services rose 9.5 percent, with housing rising 8.1 percent and food increasing by 6.7 percent.
Transportation prices also increased, rising 5 percent. Alcoholic beverages and medical care rose 4.4 and 3 percent respectively.
On the downside, recreation declined over the last 12 months by 4 percent.
This was followed by decreases in education and communication, down 2.9 percent and apparel, down 1.2 percent.
Under the revised, Consumer Price Index, the new base period will be the fourth quarter, 2008.
Commerce said the revised CPI has a number of significant improvements that will make it an even more accurate measure of price movement than ever before.
It replaces a CPI that was used based on 1997 household expenditures.
A CPI is usually a country’s most visible economic indicator of inflation, or in some cases, deflation.
Revising the CPI has taken four years, beginning with the CNMI’s Household Income and Expenditure Survey that was initiated in April 2005.
This survey collected detailed data on how households spend their money.
The data was derived from over 800 questionnaires and diaries completed by households in Saipan, Tinian and Rota.
The samples were collected and keyed.
A new item sample was selected and new item weights were calculated for the CPI.
Although many of the items were also in the old CPI, there were a number of new items added to the index based on the 2005 survey.
The number of items priced quarterly will increase from 113 items to 161 items.
The item sample was chosen using probability methods that ensured that the most important items, in terms of average monthly household expenditures, were selected.
This revised CPI continues to have nine major groups that conform to the groups in the U.S. Consumer Price Index and with those of all of the other Insular Areas.
This makes comparing the relative expenditures between the CNMI with the U.S. or with other insular areas much easier than before because there is now a consistent classification system across all of the areas.
The nine groups in the CPI are as follows: Food, Alcoholic Beverages, Housing, Apparel, Transportation, Medical Care, Recreation, Education and Communication, and Other Goods and Services.
The funding for this major project came from the Office of Insular Affairs.
This Office has been trying to improve the statistics in the IAs through its Statistical Enhancement Program.
