Rising Prices, Increasing Poverty, Slowing Job Growth: Hawaii’s Economy Faces Grim Times 0 Among those facing higher costs are Oahu utility customers whose October bills could show more cost increases on top of a dramatic rise over the past year.
When Oahu residents open their electric bills in October, they could be in for the latest in a long series of unpleasant surprises. The average bill is expected to be up 4%, or about $9 per household – following a yearlong rise that already has people complaining.
Few things illustrate Oahu’s surging cost of living more strikingly than the cost of electricity. But the cost to power homes is hardly the only inescapable cost increase Hawaii residents face these days.
While the cost of electricity rose 34% in July compared to a year before, gasoline prices rose 36% compared with the same month a year ago, according to the most recent federal data released in August. Hawaii gas prices averaged $5.24 a gallon on Tuesday, AAA reported, compared with a national average of $3.75.
Those increases were in addition to double digit percentage increases in the price of groceries, which rose 11%.
