29 July 2024
The St Helena Statistics Office has released a report and an accompanying data file containing the results from the 2023 Household Expenditure Survey (HES). The survey was conducted between August and November 2023 and was designed to provide an updated estimate of the average weekly consumption expenditure of households, or ‘shopping basket’ for short, for the Consumer Price Index (CPI – formerly known as the Retail Price Index, or RPI), which in turn measures price inflation.
119 completed survey questionnaires were obtained, or roughly one for every 16 households on St Helena. The new price of the average weekly shopping basket of resident households is estimated to be £255, which is almost the same as the basket from the 2017 survey, when price inflation is taken into account and other adjustments are made for comparability (these include the removal of loan principal repayments and house construction costs from the basket, in line with the latest international recommendations for price indices).
Detailed changes to the composition of the average weekly shopping basket are relatively small when compared to 2017; eighteen new categories of expenditure have been added, and fifteen existing categories have been discontinued. The detailed weighting patterns of different categories reflect the changes that have occurred in St Helena’s economy since 2017, including the new international freight shipping service, the establishment of a scheduled weekly air transport service to South Africa, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, improvements in communications technology, and price increases caused by rising fuel costs. The new basket will be used as the basis for the CPI from the third quarter of 2024.
The 2023 HES was a significant effort and sincere thanks are extended to the households who participated, to the enumerators who visited all the households, and to all others who supported it and made it a success.
For the full set of materials for the 2023 HES, including the report, data file, and questionnaires, please visit: https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/st-helena/statistics/surveys#HES