Every month in France, INSEE publishes the consumer price index. In Saint-Martin, this index is not calculated, just as price changes are not measured. For a simple reason: there is no competent body to do this in the territory. And contrary to what everyone thinks, INSEE is not intended to carry out this type of mission in Saint-Martin.
The non-establishment of the institute in Saint-Martin is not a shortcoming. By virtue of its statutes, INSEE aims to act in mainland France as well as in the overseas departments, but not in the territories governed by article 74 of the Constitution. If a COM wishes to know the consumer price index or other economic indicators, it must request it from INSEE and pay for the work. The COM statutes also give them the latitude to create their own statistical institute.
In Saint-Martin, announcements have been made until today: in June 2016, the COM announced the creation of a statistical office, a year earlier, the town contract suggested the establishment of a '' an observatory of socio-economic data. But none has materialized.
Who collects prices in Saint-Martin?
Today in Saint-Martin, the fraud and competition department regularly carries out price surveys but does not intend to draw up studies and publish its results. In June 2019, the COM was equipped with a price, margins and income observatory (observatory which is not yet listed on the oversea observatory site) which has not, him, vocation to raise prices, but rather to make recommendations and sound the alarm bells.
«In Reunion, the publication of the report on the prices of mobile telephony packages allowed a drop in prices, the operators concerned had themselves undertaken the regulation ”, confided to us last year the section president of the regional chamber of accounts of Guadeloupe, also president of the observatory of Saint-Martin.
In Guadeloupe, Martinique or Guyana, the observatories use studies carried out by INSEE in particular to carry out their work. What then in Saint-Martin where there is no quantified data and no one to collect it? "The issue will be addressed at our next meeting. We will see how INSEE could carry out a study, if it is possible to order one“, Confides Serge Moguerou.
The question of cost will then arise, knowing that the financial resources released by the State for the price observatory in Saint-Martin are low, 21 euros for 000.
Since their installation, the members of the observatory of Saint-Martin have focused on the local implementation of a quality price shield, that is to say of a list of fifty products whose prices would be fixed and controlled once per year by the competition and fraud department. "At the start of the year, we were in discussions with distributors to identify the products and fix the prices.“, Confides the president of the observatory whose work was halted with the Covid-19 health crisis.
Serge Moguerou denies any significant increase in prices in Saint-Martin. "There has been a slight increase in prices of around 2% but not a multiplication of prices by 2 or 3 as we could say or feel ", He says. The prefect, who had asked the agents of the fraud department to make statements in the stores, had justified this increase in prices largely by a change in the supply system. The Minister of Overseas had also explained to our colleagues in Guadeloupe 1st that the cost of air freight had been multiplied by 2 or 3. "Normally, 60% of air freight is financed by the price of passenger tickets. But today airlines have lost 90% of their passengers, on the whole of our planet. (…) There [therefore] had an impact on prices. We go from 4 to 5 euros per kilo (of freight), to 10 to 12 euros per kilo today "She said.
Finally, regarding the creation of a statistics observatory in Saint-Martin, (soualigapost.com)
6,789 total views
No comments