According to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), the Lebanese economy’s average inflation rate stood at -1.42% year-on-year (y-o-y) by Oct.2016.
Primarily, “Transportation” (13.10% of CPI) and “Water, electricity, gas, and other fuels” (11.9% of CPI) sub-indices recorded the steepest respective declines of 4.78% and 10.51%, largely due to the downward trend of oil prices. The “Food and non-alcoholic beverages” sub-index (20.6% of CPI) fell by an annual 1.43%; similarly, the “Health” sub-index (7.8% of CPI) slid by a yearly average of 2.24% by October 2016.
In contrast, the average prices of “Clothing and footwear” (5.4% of CPI) , “Restaurant and Hotels” (2.6% of CPI) and “Recreation, Amusement, and culture” (2.3% of CPI) rose by 4.08%, 2.63% and 1.54%, respectively. Over the same period, average prices for the Education sub-index (5.9% of CPI) also rose by 1.69%.
On a month-on-month basis, October’s CPI edged up by 0.91%, compared to September 2016. Regionally, the CPI of each of the individual regions of Beirut, Mount Lebanon, North, Bekaa, South, and Nabatieh displayed rises. In fact, the largest monthly CPI increases were witnessed in both Bekaa and Nabatieh, recording 1.62% and 1.60% respectively. The smallest monthly change was recorded in Beirut, with a slight 0.52% uptick.
Yearly Average Change in Selected Key CPI Components
Source: CAS