Prices starting to spiral upwards
If you wondered why your credit card bill has been increasing while you have not been on a spending binge, take a look at your dining out tabs, your dry cleaning , your weekly supermarket total and of course electricity.
During Lent, as the Catholic population turns to fish, in spite of the bad reviews given the Fish Market, will rise 25 to 50 cents a pound, added on to 30 to 60 percent increases recorded in recent weeks says Panama America.
The cost of transportation rose 9.6 percent , despite falling international price of fuel and domestic subsidies, while housing, water, electricity and gas climbed 3.1percent
From December to January, the Consumer Price Index rose 0.8 percent compared with 1.9 percent for the whole of 2009.
Expect more as businesses who fought against an increase in the minimum wage, pass their higher cost of doing business, on to the consumer.
The loqly pàidworkers will see little benefit from their pay increases as rising prices and higher Social Security payments gobble up their extra earnings.
Chamber of Commerce, economist Manuel Ferreira, said that inflation is going to increase because of rising fuel prices and goods internationally.
So tighten your purse strings.