Antigua and Barbuda’s consumer price level has climbed 7% over the 12-month period ending in September 2026, according to new official data released by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics on Friday. This overall inflation surge was fueled primarily by steep cost increases across communication, housing, and transportation sectors, even as food and non-alcoholic beverage prices trended downward over the course of the year.
Non-food inflation stood out as the dominant driver of the annual growth in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the nation’s key benchmark for tracking overall price shifts. Among all major spending categories, communication costs posted the most dramatic annual jump, rising 23.1% compared to September 2025. The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels category followed with a 12.6% annual increase, while transportation costs rose 12% year-over-year.
A closer look at transportation data reveals that air travel costs are a major contributor to the sector’s growth: the overall Transport Services Index surged 25.5% over 12 months, pushed largely by a 29.7% spike in passenger air transportation costs. For consumers relying on personal vehicles, operating costs also rose 6.1%, with the statistics division linking part of this increase to a rise in pump prices for gasoline, which climbed from $14.50 to $16.50 per gallon over the period. Actual housing rentals also outpaced baseline inflation, growing 8.9% compared to the prior year.
Against these broad price increases, consumers saw welcome relief at grocery stores and other food retailers. The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Index fell 1% year-over-year, with the standalone Food Index dropping an even steeper 1.5%. Lower prices for vegetables and meat products were the main factors pulling the category down. Vegetable prices overall declined 10.4%, with all three vegetable subcategories recording an average 11.1% drop. Fresh or chilled potatoes saw the largest decrease at 13%, while frozen, preserved or processed vegetable products fell 10.8%. For meat and meat products, prices dropped 3.8% overall, with pork prices posting a particularly sharp 15.8% decline, and other meats and edible offal falling 8.9%.
When volatile food and energy prices are excluded from calculations, core inflation still came in at 7.5% over the 12-month period. This figure signals that broad inflationary pressures are not limited to the most volatile market segments, but have extended throughout the nation’s economy.
On a monthly basis, the overall CPI also rose 1.1% in September 2026 alone, even as food and non-alcoholic beverage prices fell 1.1% over the month. Fish and seafood prices posted a substantial monthly decline of 13.8%, with fresh, chilled or frozen fish and seafood dropping 18.2%, and preserved or processed fish and seafood falling 11.7%. Vegetable prices also fell 4.5% in September: fresh and chilled vegetables dropped 5.7%, while frozen, preserved or processed varieties fell 4.4%. The statistics office noted that the relatively large market weight of these categories helped pull overall food prices lower for the month.
Energy costs, however, moved sharply higher in September. The overall Energy Index rose 4.6% driven by the $2 per gallon increase in gasoline prices, with the bureau recording a 13.8% monthly increase in gasoline costs.