According to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), monthly inflation in Lebanon, as captured by the change in the consumer price index (CPI), stood at a mere 0.01% in August 2019, compared to a negative 0.46% in the previous month. On an annual basis, however, Lebanon’s CPI rose by 1.22% to 108.51 in August of the current year, from 107.20 a year before. In details, the index portrays a 12.14% annual hike in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 0.58% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 5.08% surge in education prices (6.6% weight in the index), and a 1.42% appreciation in the prices of housing - owner occupied (13.6% weight in the index), only to name a few. On the other hand, the prices of housing – water, electricity, gas and other fuels (11.8% weight in the index) fell by 3.27% on a yearly basis, accompanied by a 1.27% contraction in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), a 0.23% drop in healthcare prices (7.7% weight in the index), and a 0.65% decrease in communication prices (4.5% weight in the index). The following section captures the fluctuation in the key constituents of Lebanon’s consumer basket:

On a geographical basis, the Beirut (1.24%), Nabatieh (0.37%), and South (0.26%) regions witnessed a monthly appreciation in their CPI values in August, with the Bekaa (-0.87%), North (-0.21%) and Mount Lebanon (-0.11%) regions depicting drops in their CPI values.

The following chart captures the evolution of the yearly change in CPI values since December 2011: