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Basic Food Index shows a slight increase in prices for January

turkey tails
reporters@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The Basic Food Index for the month of January 2024 has experienced a slight increase of 1.8% over December 2023 with a hike in prices for six food commodities, according to the Basic Food Index (BFI), released this week by the Commerce Department’s Statistics & Analysis Division.

This contrasts with January 2023 when the BFI saw food prices making a slight decrease.

According to the BFI report, ramen is up the most — 11.8% selling for an average price of 61¢ per package, eggs up 9.4% at $2.39 a dozen and bread rising 6.5% at $3.43 a loaf.  The three items contributed to the increase by more than 5 percent. 

Other food items that increased in January are fish $5.01 per lb.(1.9%), 2 liter ice cream for $9.27 (1.2%), and that favorite for barbecue, turkey tails at $1.86 (1.1%).

Ten food items however have a noticeable decrease including banana (-6.4%), sugar (-2.8%), chicken legs (-0.7%), mayonnaise (-0.6%), sausage (-0.5%), taro (-0.4%), rice & tune (-0.3%), ribs (-0.2%), and corned beef (-0.1%).

Remaining unchanged in January was butter, bottled water, soda, and milk.

A total of 14 major to mid-sized retail stores have been selected for monitoring basic food costs of 20 commodities on Tutuila island — from the far-west side to the far-east side.

DOC notes that the BFI is not to be confused with the Quarterly Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is a comprehensive standard measure of inflation and the cost of living in American Samoa.

For more information, please contact DOC’s Statistics & Analysis Division at 633-0120 or email americansamoastatistics@doc.as.gov