According to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), Lebanon’s average inflation rate rose by 4.32% by September 2017.
The average costs of “Housing and utilities” (including: water, electricity, gas and other fuels), which grasped a combined 28.4% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose by 5.54% year-on-year (y-o-y) by September 2017. In details, average “Owner-occupied ”rental costs constituted 13.6% of this category and increased by 3.8% y-o-y. As for the average prices of “Water, electricity, gas, and other fuels”(11.8% of the Housing & utilities component), they rose by an annual 11.55% over the same period.
In turn, the average prices for “Food and non-alcoholic beverages” (constituting 20% of the CPI) and “Education” costs (6.6% of CPI) registered yearly upticks of 3.51% and 2.67% by September 2017. The average price of “Transportation”(grasping 13.1% of the CPI) gained an annual 5.69%. Nevertheless, average “Health” costs (7.7% of the CPI), which have been decreasing in the previous months, witnessed a drop of 0.43% y-o-y over the same period.
On a monthly basis, overall Lebanese prices grew at a rate of 4.14%, which can be mainly attributed to the increase of the most weighted components in the CPI, where “Housing and utilities” and “Food and non-alcoholic beverages” escalated by 4.10% and 4.52%, respectively.
Monthly Inflation Rates
Source: CAS