Average Consumer Prices Fell 2.22% y-o-y by July 2016

According to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), average consumer prices, reflected by the average Consumer Price Index (CPI), dropped by 2.22% y-o-y by July 2016. In fact, the average CPI fell from 97.52 points during the first 7 months of the year of 2015 to an average of 95.35 points in the same period of 2016.

In details, the CPI’s components with the largest shares decreased y-o-y by July 2016, where average prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages (20.6% of CPI) declined 1.53% y-o-y by July 2016, which can be associated to the 1.4% fall in international prices of a basket of food commodities, depicted by the FAO Food Price Index. Moreover, due to the noticeable falls in oil prices between July 2015 and July 2016, transportation (13.1% of CPI) and water, electricity, gas & other fuels (11.9% of CPI) also observed yearly reductions of 5.84% and 13.40%, respectively. Other sub-indices that witnessed the same downward trend in value were health (7.8% of CPI) and communication (4.6% of CPI), posting a 2.80% and 0.32% y-o-y declines, respectively.

However, the education sub-index, constituting 5.9% of the CPI, rose by 1.49% y-o-y by July 2016. Moreover, average restaurants & hotels prices (2.6% of CPI) increased by 2.70% y-o-y by July 2016, which can be linked to the summer season. Also, the actual rent sub-index for households (old and new rent), with a weight of 3.4% of the CPI, went up 2.52%.

Regionally, all of Lebanon’s regions witnessed month-on-month slight growths in CPI. As such, the Nabatieh region gained a 0.32% monthly uptick between June 2016 and July 2016, followed by the South, North of Lebanon, and Mount Lebanon with respective rises of 0.26%, 0.20% and 0.14%.  Furthermore, prices in both Bekaa and Beirut observed minimal increases of 0.06% and 0.13%, respectively.

Monthly Changes in Deflation Levels in Lebanon (Y-o-Y)

Average Consumer Prices Fell 2.22% y-o-y by July 2016

SOURCE: CAS

 

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