DOHA: Qatar’s inflation, based on consumer price index (CPI) of May 2018 reached 108.20 (base year is 2013), showing a decrease of 0.3 percent, when compared to CPI of April 2018. The reason for the marginal decline in monthly inflation was attributed to the fall in prices of food items, housing, and utilities services.
However, when compared on year-on-year basis (y-o-y) the CPI of May 2018 has increased by 0.5 percent against the CPI of May 2017, official data released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) show.
An analysis (on m-o-m basis) of CPI for May, 2018 compared with April, 2018 CPI, showed that there are five main groups, where respective indices in this month have decreased, namely: “Food and Beverages” by 1.5 percent, due to the Ramadan discounts on some of commodities, “Recreation and Culture” decreased by the same of percentage, “Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas” by 1.1 percent, “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 0.3 percent. “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 0.1 percent. An increase had just shown on “Transport” by 1.9 percent, and “Clothing and Footwear” by 0.1 percent. “Tobacco”, “Health”, “Communication”, “Education”, and “Restaurants and Hotels” groups, have remained flat at the last month’s price level.
A comparison of the CPI, May 2018 with the CPI, May 2017 (annual change/y-o-y), an increase has been recorded in the general index (CPI), by 0.5 percent. This y-o-y price increase is primarily due to the increasing prices seen in the eight groups, namely: “Transport” by 7.8 percent, “Clothing and Footwear” by 4.3 percent, “Health” by 3.4 percent, “Food and Beverages” by 1.8 percent, “Education” by 0.9 percent, and all of
“Furniture and Household Equipment”, “Restaurants and Hotels”, and “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” are increased by 0.8 percent. Also there has been a decrease in price levels in three groups, namely:
“Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 4.8 percent, “Recreation and Culture” by 2.4 percent, “Communication” by 1.0 percent. “Tobacco” prices remained at the same level.
For the month of May, 2018, noticed that the “Transport” had the highest positive contribution by 300.0 percent, followed by “Food and Beverages” and “Clothing and Footwear” by 50.0 percent each, “Furniture and Household Equipment”, “health”, and “Education” are contributed by 25.0 percent. On the negative direction, “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” had the highest negative contribution by -275.0 percent in the annual change of CPI, followed by “Recreation and Culture” with -75.0 percent of contribution, and “Communication” by -25.0 percent.
