The latest Consumer Price Index for American Samoa shows a significant drop in the rate of inflation at the end of the first quarter of 2009 compared to the end of 2008.
The rate dropped from 12.2 percent at the end of 2008 to 7.3 percent in the first quarter of this year.
Despite this reduction, the overall cost of food items jumped by almost 20 percent in the last year.
The main factor for the drop in inflation was a decrease in the housing index of 8.4 percent.
