Surprise 1: Over the past 12 months, prices have risen by 2.2% in Martinique—just as they have in France.
Surprise #2: According to this table (and the others), prices in Martinique (and in the other «DOMs») haven’t diverged significantly from those in France over the past 13 years.
Thus, from 1998—which serves as the base year for comparison (index 100)—to August 2011, prices rose from 100 to 124 in mainland France and to 126.8 in Martinique (representing an increase of 3% over the period). This yields some surprising partial results: see the trends for petroleum products, services, and clothing…
So does that mean the root causes of the high cost of living and the real disparity between the «DOMs» and «metropolitan France» date back to before 1998? Surprise 1: Over the course of 12 months, prices rose by 2.2% in Martinique—the same as in France.
