The Statistic Institute of Belize has released its latest figures for June 2015, and the assessment is that on average, the cost of goods and services are 0.8 percent lower this year than at the same time last year.

The all items Consumer Price Index was at 102.8, down from 103.6 in the same month last year, which indicates a inflation rate of NEGATIVE 0.9 percent. The main contributor to this overall change is the falling fuel prices worldwide. In Belize, the prices of premium and regular gas was about 18 percent lower this year, and diesel went down the lowest by 25% in one year. That fall in fuel prices has a somewhat direct correlation to international airfares, and SIB reports that the cost of those went down by almost 25 percent when compared to June of last year.

Food prices are marginally down by 0.1 percent, and the most significant drop recorded was the prices of red kidney beans. Those declined by more than one third when compared to a year ago. But, the drastic decrease in Beans is offset on the CPI measurement by the increase prices in both pork and beef products.

In the category of utility bills, specifically "housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, liquefied petroleum gas, better known as LPG, butane or cooking gas, is priced at 109 dollars and 91 cents. That's down by 0.9 percent from last year's price which was 115 dollars and 75 cents. Electricity tariffs, which were decreased in January of this year, were almost 9 percent lower than last year in June.

Rating the 7 towns and 2 cities in the country, the SIB says that Dangriga was the only municipality to record an increase in consumer prices with an inflation rate of 1.9 percent, meaning it became more expensive to live there, in the last 12 months. Belmopan had the greatest decrease, recording an inflation rate of negative 1.8 percent during the last year. The Statistic Institute of Belize released other figures, and we're still in the process of reviewing them. We'll have more for you in tomorrow's newscast.