Do I have to do everything around here? Why should I be teaching stubborn, purposely obtuse, Guyanese the realities of local life? We shouldn’t even be talking about average Guyanese and averages anymore. Not in a country where the grandest prose is dug up, dusted off, and trotted out to describe where this country and its citizens are since the globally heralded introduction of oil into Guyanese consciousness. But that is what that wonderful Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase forces into the contribution.
I hear the Ministry of Finance enlightening the nation about CPI increasing by 1.6% since December 2023. Inspiring, it is. A thrilling marvel that majestic mathematical gem, which should line the stomachs of hungry Guyanese, now the nationally growing army of food deprived. At that 1.6% CPI increase, Guyanese shouldn’t have any trouble with food prices. Indeed, 1.6% is that negligible in the overall price picture. At 1.6% increase in CPI since December, Guyanese should manage easily. None should be hungry.
The smart money insists that CPI is a basket of goods, representative goods. One doesn’t need a university degree, or a passing acquaintance with the likes of Paul Samuelson, Amartya Sen, and Joe Stiglitz to claim such economics wisdom. Even pre-nursery children know enough economics to appreciate that a basket of baby formula and a basket of vaccines, among many other baskets are involved. Whatever anybody says, however they arrive at their numbers, there is one harrowing story that pervades Guyanese consciousness, specifically those citizens most directly and punishingly affected.
How to get enough to eat daily is the challenge. Amid the great statistics that inundate these shores, matters boil down to not three full plates (square ones) during tormenting waking hours, but about only two. How to do so when money doesn’t last. Despite the Finance Ministry’s lovely (or grotesquely mocking) CPI increase number, poor citizens often notice that their purchasing power dwindle right under their noses. With a 1.6% CPI increase, buying basics shouldn’t be so demanding, should it?
Seeing that it is handholding time, I go slowly and patiently, with an emphasis on local flavors. So, I dive into the fundamentals of CPI. In either its most fundamental or sophisticated form, it is a basket of prices. To restate the ordinary in folkish terms, many representative baskets with many items sometimes. A basket of pills and healing liquids from the corner drugstore. A basket of wheels to facilitate travel (minibus). A basket of brick and board (building or rehabilitating). A basket of utilities: water and light. And the one which Guyanese at the broad bottom of the pyramid are most personally impacted by, a basket of food. Basic food items, to ram home the point.
The food basket is a killer. It is superior in the consideration of countless citizens. Food is king, queen, and bishop to sneak a few chess pieces into this issue. Some questions help: how many items are in Guyana’s CPI construct? What weights are attached to subsets? To what degree does food feature? I have a proposal. Why not provide the traditional CPI stat, and then representative food numbers as a standalone? A sound food basket that reflects local reality, tells the real story, and justifies the many cries for sustained relief.
Think of this: transportation could be probably delayed for days, even weeks, unless compulsory immediately: work, school, urgent medical care. Personal construction can be held off for a more opportune hour. The same can be said for some of the other baskets, other than medicine. Undoubtedly, the CPI is a basket of serious stuff, what makes modern life manageable for most, more magnificent for the well-endowed.
But when the basket of food, basics is subsumed and obscured by the average of averages of other baskets then a terrible injustice has been wrecked upon suffering Guyanese. We are talking about food basics here, folks, not foreign luxuries. Since I may be a Lone Ranger on this, I discard ‘we’ and substitute me: I speak about food first, foremost, and fulsomely.
Thus: when the CPI is mixed, shaken, and blended to the luscious 1.6% increase for the first half of 2024, it equates to the average of a basket of booze, even a basket of bilge. Battalions of Guyanese are hungry and hurting, and while 1.6% is what CPI is. It should be made a crime to tell Guyanese that this is where matters stand, and those food prices that are being paid are really balanced out by the averages of the other baskets in the CPI. Give Guyanese some food balance.
In today’s Guyana, holding the line at that 1.6% is a bureaucratic gimmick, a sleight of hand. Realistically, 1.6% is burying food inflation among scores, probably hundreds, of other items. So that food stats are swallowed up, lost in the shuffle, and made palatable. It is a neat conman’s game. The 1.6% CPI increase is smiling through the tears; don’t worry, be happy. Prices are not as bad as is said. The trouble here is that there is too much artfulness for local good. It is okay to inform that CPI increased by 1.6%, but give a separate number, an accurate number, that captures the horrible pain of food prices. At least, that should represent some rare official honesty.
