Latest index value and inflation rates for Q2 2025
The latest estimate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has been released by the St Helena Statistics Office, for the second quarter of 2025 (Q2 2025). The CPI has been measured at 103.6, a small increase of 0.1% on the previous quarter (Q1 2025) but a 6.3% increase compared to a year ago (Q2 2024). This annual inflation rate of 6.3% is a drop in the rate of 0.2 percentage points compared to the rate measured in Q1 2025, which was 6.5%.
Price changes over the last year
On average, all broad groups of items saw their prices rise compared to a year ago. The highest average annual increase was in Communication (18.4%), resulting from increases in July 2024 in the landline telephone tariff and the price of mobile data packages. There was an average annual increase in Household Energy of 14.5%, the result of the increase in the price of electricity in July 2024, and increases in the price of firewood and gas cylinder refills. The average annual increase in Food prices was 7.0%, which was slightly lower than the annual increase measured last quarter (8.4%).
Price changes over the last quarter
The quarterly change in the CPI was 0.1%, comparing Q2 2025 to Q1 2025. Only three groups of categories experienced average increases since the last quarter: Household Energy, 1.8%; Miscellaneous Good & Services, 0.9%; and Transport, 0.6%. Clothing, Food and Alcohol and Tobacco fell slightly and all other categories remained unchanged.
In this quarter, the major prices changes that have affected the inflation rate were in locally-provided services (electricity and telecommunications), but price changes in both the UK and South Africa usually have a strong impact on prices on St Helena, since the majority of goods imported are purchased in those two countries. In May 2025 annual consumer price inflation in the UK was measured at 3.4% (UK Office for National Statistics), down from 3.5% in April. In South Africa, annual consumer price inflation was measured at 2.8% in May 2025 (Statistics South Africa), unchanged from April 2025. Changes in the value of the Rand compared to the Pound can have a large effect on the change in the price of goods purchased in South Africa, especially during periods of increase or decrease. However, for the period July 2024 to June 2025, the Pound averaged 23.5 Rand, which is very similar to the average value for the previous twelve months, which was 23.6, and so had no major impact on the St Helena inflation rate.
Find out more
For details on the methodology, please click here, and for detailed tables of the CPI and annual inflation rates from 1994 onwards, please download this file. For any questions and comments, please get in touch, here.