Puerto Rico's soaring cost of living, from giant electric bills to $5 cornflakes

In recession since 2006, the island is grappling with supermarket items 21% higher than the US average - even as 41% live in poverty

Puerto Rico is in a severe fiscal crisis due to its $72bn in debt, which its governor recently declared was "not payable". It has been in recession since 2006, with a generally contracting economy creating an unemployment rate of about 12-13% compared to the US rate of 5.5% and about a 41% poverty rate compared to the US's 14.3%. While the island is dotted with US chain stores like Walmart and Walgreens - amounting to the largest concentration of those stores in the world - residents face high costs for many necessities, while earning a remarkably low per capita income of about $19,000 per year, half the US average.

A recent report by Puerto Rico's Institute of Statistics compared the cost of living in Puerto Rico with that of more than 325 urban areas in the US. It found that supermarket items were 21% more expensive than in the US. Utilities were the fourth-priciest in the US, after Fairbanks, Alaska, Honolulu, Hawaii and Hilo Hawaii. Overall, the cost of living was 13% higher than in those 325 areas in the US. Here is a look at some of those staples and how their cost compares to the rest of the US: