Bermuda's annual rate of inflation climbed in April to 2.9 percent on the back of rising healthcare costs, according to figures released yesterday.

Although the cost of most common goods and services measured in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased only modestly from the same month last year, the price of health and personal care rose by 10.3 percent.

An analysis released by the Department of Statistics attributed the effect to a 9.1 percent jump in the average cost of health insurance premiums.

The rate of inflation has now increased every month since November 2009, while April's figure is the highest recorded in the last year.

And it has more than doubled in the space of two months from the February rate of 1.3 percent.

The CPI is widely used by governments to measure an economy's inflation - the diminishing purchasing power of a given sum of money. A basket of goods and services that cost $100.00 in April 2006 now costs consumers $113.90.

After healthcare, the cost of apparel and transport saw the biggest increases - at 3.7 and 4.1 percent, repsectively.