The Maldives National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirms the most significant price increment from any sector was observed in the telecommunication services in January.

In the bureau's latest data on Consumer Price Index (CPI), telecommunication services observed an overall growth in the sector by 8.83% - including prices of services.

Other areas of price increment included fish, which increased by 3.60% while prices on fruit increased by 5.89% and motorbike and spares increased by 0.91%. Moreover, prices of meat increased by 1.01% while clothes and other accessories saw a jump by 6.24%.

On the other hand, shoes and slippers saw a price drop by -0.97%.

The inflation rate of Maldives was observed at 0.51% in January, which marks an increase from 0.48% observed in December 2019.

However, the CPI on inflation, excluding price variation on fish was recorded at 0.38%.

The inflation rate in annual terms have increased to 1.89%, comparing the overall rate from January 2019 until the review month of January 2020.