Average Consumer Prices Dropped 2.51% by June 2016
According to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), average consumer prices decreased by 2.51% y-o-y in H1 2016, where the average Consumer Price Index (CPI) dropped from 97.62 points in the first half (H1) of 2015 to 95.17 points in the same period of 2016.
As for the average CPI’s components, prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages (20.6% of CPI) decreased by 1.87% y-o-y by June 2016. Transportation (13.1% of CPI) and water, electricity, gas & other fuels (11.9% of CPI) witnessed yearly drops of 5.59% and 14.53%, respectively. Such noticeable falls in value can be attributed to the lower oil prices between June 2015 and June 2016. The other sub-indices that observed a decline in their average values were health (7.8% of CPI) and communication (4.6% of CPI), posting a 2.94% and 0.36% y-o-y declines, respectively.
However, the education sub-index, constituting 5.9% of the CPI, increased by 1.49% y-o-y by June 2016. Moreover, average restaurants & hotels prices (2.6% of CPI) increased by 2.73% y-o-y by June 2016. Also, the actual rent sub-index for households (old and new rent), with a weight of 3.4% of the CPI, went up 2.34%.
All of Lebanon’s regions witnessed month-on-month increases in CPI. In details, the region with the highest increase in CPI was the Bekaa region with a 1.56% monthly upstick between May 2016 and June 2016, followed by Nabatieh, the South and North of Lebanon with respective rises of 1.11%, 1.03% and 1.00%; however, prices in both Mount Lebanon and Beirut observed minimal increases of 0.43% and 0.15%, respectively.
Monthly Changes in Deflation Levels in Lebanon (Y-o-Y)
SOURCE: CAS