Doha: The Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of November 2018. The CPI of November 2018 reached to 108.51 point (base year is 2013), showing an increase of 0.07 percent, when compared to CPI of October 2018. Compared to CPI of November 2017, year on year (Y-o-Y) basis, a decrease of 0.24 percent has been recorded in the general index (CPI) of this month.
An analysis on M-o-M basis of CPI for November 2018 compared with October 2018 CPI, shows that there are five main groups, where respective indices in this month have increased, namely: Recreation and Culture” by 0.79 percent, “Clothing and Footwear” by 0.43 percent, “Restaurants and Hotels” by 0.26 percent, “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 0.16 percent, “Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas” by 0.02 percent.
A decrease had shown on “Food and Beverages” by 0.62 percent. The groups of “Tobacco”, “Furniture and Household Equipment”, “Health”, “Transport”, “Communication”, and “Education” have remained flat at the last month’s price level.
A comparison of the CPI, November 2018 with the CPI, November 2017 (Annual Change), a decrease has been recorded in the general index (CPI), by 0.24 percent. This Y-o-Y price decrease is primarily due to the decreasing prices seen in the five groups, namely: “Communication” by 11.31 percent, “Recreation and Culture” by 5.06 percent, “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 2.56 percent, “Food and Beverages” by 2.38 percent, and “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 0.06 percent. Also, there has been an increase in price levels in six groups, namely: “Education” by 9.20 percent, “Transport” by 5.35 percent, “Clothing and Footwear” by 3.40 percent, “Health” by 3.37 percent, “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 1.67 percent, “Restaurants and Hotels” by 0.47 percent. “Tobacco” prices remained at the same level. Table (2) shows the annual comparison of CPI November 2018, and Graph (3) shows the monthly and annual comparison for CPI this month, also graph (4) shows a monthly and an annual change in CPI during November 2017 to November 2018.
Regards the contribution relative, which is a percentage reflects the different contribution of the main groups on the CPI annual rate. For the month of November, 2018, noticed that the “Transport” had the highest contribution on opposite direction of CPI annual rate, by 360.97 percent, “Recreation and Culture” also contribute by 264.85 percent in same direction of CPI annual rate.
The CPI of November , 2018 excluding “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” group stands at 109.11 points showing an increase of 0.30 percent when compared to the index of October 2018, and a 0.61 percent when compared to the CPI of November, 2017.
