Earlier this week, Policy and Resources announced that the December retail price index (RPI) had fallen from 5.6 to 5.3 per cent, while the RPI(X) – the RPI minus housing costs – rose by a fraction but remained at a historically low level of 3.4 per cent.
Encouraging The chairman of the Jersey branch of the Institute of Directors, Andrew Lewis, said they welcomed the new figures, particularly in the light of rising global oil prices.
‘This announcement is encouraging and extremely important to the Island’s longer-term economic aspirations,’ he said.
In particular, if a sales tax is to be introduced in order to broaden the tax base and address the forecast fiscal deficit, then it will be important that the headline rate of inflation is as low as possible in order to reduce the initial inflationary impact.’
