According to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), the consumer price index (CPI) remained on its downtrend, dropping from 100.77 in July 2014 to 96.89 in July of this year, registering a 3.86% year-on-year (y-o-y) deflation. Since “water, electricity, gas & other fuels” and “transportation” constitute two of the major weights in the CPI with a cumulative share of 25%, it’s expected that consumer prices will fall on the back of bearish trend of the international oil prices. Furthermore, the appreciating dollar versus the Euro also contributed to the price decrease as a major part of Lebanon’s imports is from Europe.
In terms of the CPI’s components, “Food and non-alcoholic beverages” (20.6% of CPI) decreased by 1.92% y-o-y by July 2015. “Transportation” (13.1% of CPI) and “Water, electricity, gas & other fuels” (11.9% of CPI), experienced yearly falls of 9.92% and 19.13%, respectively. In addition, “Health” (7.8% of CPI) and “Communication” (4.6% of CPI), recorded a 7.77% and a 0.02% y-o-y decline in July
However, Education sub-index, constituting 5.9% of the CPI, augmented by 4.52% y-o-y in July 2015. Furthermore, clothing and footwear (5.4% of CPI) prices went up by an annual 4.24%. In addition, actual rent sub-index for households (old and new rent), with a stake of 3.4% in the CPI, augmented by an annual 1.32% over the above mentioned period.
Yearly CPI Components Change in June
Source: CAS