Hurricane Beryl’s disruption of agricultural supply chains has led to the highest monthly spike in food prices since early 2020, pushing Jamaica’s inflation rate to 2.4 per cent in August 2024.
The All-Jamaica Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures change over time in the prices paid by consumers for a representative basket of goods and services, rose to 140.7, up from 137.5 in July.
This surge was driven by a significant 4.1 per cent increase in the ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ category.
Within this category, the cost of food items jumped 4.3 per cent, with vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulses seeing a staggering 15.5 per cent increase due to supply shortages caused by the hurricane.
In addition to rising food prices, the ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels’ category saw a 3.7 per cent increase, largely due to a 10.6 per cent rise in electricity rates.
This was the second-largest contributor to the monthly inflation rate.
