Annual Economic and Financial Review -December 2018

2018 Annual Economic and Financial Review ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

Prices, Wages and Employment

with back-pay and retroactive payments, preliminarily estimated to cost $53.0m. In the absence of labour force statistics, provisional data from the Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Board for 2018 indicated that the number of private sector registered contributors increased to 31,391 in 2018 from 25,694 in 2017. This mainly reflected higher employee counts in the construction sector (10.0 per cent), transportation (3.1 per cent), accommodation (1.5 per cent), and wholesale and education both at 1.1 per cent. In the public sector the number of general public administration services employees increased by 2.7 per cent to 9,797. Meanwhile, the number of registered self-employed persons contracted by 122 to 1,887.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 1.5 per cent in 2018, relative to an increase of 2.4 per cent in 2017. The main reason for this disinflation was the normalization of the housing sub-index after the methodological review, which took place in 2017. Accordingly, the housing sub-index, the highest weighted, rose by 2.2 per cent compared with 7.4 per cent in 2017. Increases were also recorded in the sub- indices of food (3.9 per cent); transport and communications (0.2 per cent); medical care and expenses (1.4 per cent), household furnishing and supplies (1.4 per cent) and clothing and footwear (0.9 per cent). The rise in the food sub-index, the second highest weighted, mainly reflected higher prices for meats, fruits, vegetables and bakery and cereal products. The increment in the housing index reflected higher costs related to maintenance and repairs and other related expenses. Meanwhile, there were declines in the sub-indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco (1.5 per cent) and personal services (4.2 per cent).

During the year, public sector employees received a 5.0 per cent salary increase, along

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