Inflation in the Isle of Man, as measured by Consumer Price Index, stands at 9.8 % for September 2022, down from 10.4 % in August.

‘Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ continues to be the biggest contributor to the rate of inflation with an increase of 33.6 %.

All prices within this category saw an increase compared to 12 months ago, with ‘Gas’, seeing the biggest increase of (149.7 %).

‘Restaurants and Hotels’ has seen the second biggest increase contributing 12.0 % to the overall CPI.

‘Catering’ has seen the biggest increase in this category (12.7 %).

The third biggest contributor to the rate of inflation was ‘Food and non-alcoholic beverages’, which has increased by 10.8 % since September 2021.

The largest increase in this category was ‘Oils and fats’, which is up 29.9 % over the past year.

METHOLOGY

Inflation measures the increase in the cost of living, expressed through the prices paid for goods and services by an average household.

A ‘basket’ of goods has been compiled based on the results of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2013.

The relevant importance of each item is taken into account by weighting products according to the average expenditure on each.

Combining the movements in all the prices together results in an index value and movements in that index value represent an inflation rate; usually expressed as a percentage increase over the previous year.

For example, if an annual rate of inflation is given as 5%, then this means something like: ‘over the last 12 months, the total cost of goods and services consumed by the average household has increased by 5%’.

Currently in the Isle of Man, around 1,000 prices are collected for some 500 items.

These prices are collected by the staff of Statistics Isle of Man by a combination of: mailing out forms to be filled in by participating businesses, personal visits to premises, telephone contacts, and browsing online shopping sites.

Approximately one hundred retailers and other organisations help by either supplying price information or allowing access to their premises. Prices are collected on the 17th/18th of every month (or the nearest working day if this falls on a weekend).