Latest index value and inflation rates for Q3 2025
The latest estimate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has been released by the St Helena Statistics Office, for the third quarter of 2025 (Q3 2025). The CPI has been measured at 104.8, an increase of 1.2% on the previous quarter (Q2 2025) and a 4.8% increase compared to a year ago (Q3 2024). This annual inflation rate of 4.8% is a drop in the rate by 1.5 percentage points compared to the rate measured in Q2 2025, which was 6.3%.
Price changes over the last year
All broad groups of items in the Index saw their prices rise, on average, compared to a year ago, apart from the Clothing category. The highest average annual increase was in Household Energy (10.2%), the result of changes to the electricity tariff implemented on 1 July 2025. There was an average annual increase in Food prices of 6.9%, which is similar to the level of annual food price inflation measured in Q2, which included the increase in the price of bread and meat in Q4 2024. Transport prices also increased on average by 6.2%, with increases in items that represent the cost of passenger road transport. The annual rate of price inflation for Communications was previously measured at 18.4% in Q2, but this is now zero because it has been more that a year since the revised tariffs for land line telephones and mobile phones took effect.
Price changes over the last quarter
The quarterly change in the CPI was 1.2%, comparing Q3 2025 to Q2 2025. All categories experienced average increases since the last quarter, apart from Miscellaneous Goods and Services (-1.4%). Household Energy and Housing saw the largest increase between the quarters, a result of the changes to the tariffs for both water and electricity introduced at the beginning of Q3 2025 by Connect St Helena Ltd. Alcohol and Tobacco (1.3%) and Household Goods and Services (1.2%) also went up on average, due to changes in the price of tobacco-based products, and increases in the minimum wage respectively.
Price changes in both the UK and South Africa have a strong impact on prices on St Helena, since the majority of goods imported are purchased in those two countries. In the UK, the annual price inflation rate (using the Consumer Price Index) was 3.8% for August 2025, unchanged from July. In South Africa, the Consumer Price Index was 3.3% for August, down from 3.5% in July 2025. This year, between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025, price changes in locally-provided services has also had a significant impact on the overall inflation rate, including changes in electricity and water prices, and increases to the minimum wage. In this quarter, it is notable that previous changes to the prices of telecommunication services are no longer applying upward pressure on the annual inflation rate, since it is now a full year since the changes were made.
Find out more
For details on the methodology, please click here. For detailed tables of the CPI and annual inflation rates from 1994 onwards, please download this file. Other datasets, bulletins and reports are also available on our website at www.sainthelena.gov.sh/statistics. For any questions and comments, please get in touch, here.