According to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), consumer prices rose on average by an annual 3.16% in the first two months of 2019. The rise is attributed to increases in prices across all components of the Consumer price index (CPI), except “Communication” and “Transportation”.
In details, the average costs of “Housing and utilities” (including: water, electricity, gas and other fuels), which composed 28.4% of the CPI, climbed by 3.15% year-on-year (y-o-y) in the first two months of 2019. The breakdown of this component showed that “Owner-occupied” rental costs (13.60% of the 28.4%) increased by 2.82% y-o-y, and the average prices of “Water, electricity, gas, and other fuels” (11.80% of the 28.4%), rose by an annual 3.40% over the same period.
In its turn, the average prices of “Food and non-alcoholic beverages” (20% of CPI) increased by 7.10% y-o-y by February 2019.
In addition, the average “Health” (7.7% of the CPI) and “Education” (6.6% of the CPI) sub-indices recorded respective upticks of 2.07% and 5.29% y-o-y by February 2019.As for the average prices of “Clothing and Footwear” (5.2% of CPI), they substantially rose by an average of 7.15% over the same period.
Meanwhile, “transportation” Sub-index( 13.10% of the CPI), that is relying mainly on oil declined by an annual 2.58%,given the average price of oil retreated from $67.48/barrel by February 2018 to $62.24/barrel in the same period this year. As for the “Communication” component, it recorded a slight decrease of 0.07% over the same period.
Average Inflation Rates by February
Source: CAS