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 2.71% in December 2019, its highest level since the month of July 2012, compared to 1.96% in the previous month. This sizeable increase can be attributed to the increase in the exchange rate of the USD against the LBP in the parallel market amid the limited access to the greenback, making imports more expensive in a country that is heavily reliant on import activity. On an annual basis, moreover, Lebanon’s CPI rose by 6.96% in 2019 to 115.54, from 108.02 in 2018 as all index constituents saw a hike in their respective prices. In details, the index portrays a 17.36% annual hike in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 9.77% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 14.15% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a 17.96% rally in the prices of furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (3.8% weight in the index), only to name a few. The following section captures the fluctuation in the key constituents of Lebanon’s consumer basket:

On a geographical basis, all regions witnessed a monthly hike in their CPI values, led by the North and Bekaa regions (3.04% each) and followed by the South and Nabatieh Regions (3.01% each), the Mount Lebanon (2.65%) and Beirut (1.68%) regions.