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 2.13% in January 2020, compared to 2.71% in the previous month. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI rose by 10.04% to 118.00 in January 2020, from 107.23 a year earlier as nearly all index constituents (except for health) saw a hike in their respective prices. In details, the index portrays a 24.28% annual hike in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 14.45% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 18.24% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a 23.87% rally in the prices of furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (3.8% weight in the index), not to mention the sharp 33.39% annual rise in the prices of alcoholic beverages & tobacco (1.4% weight in the index). 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 Nabatieh (2.88%), followed by the South (2.81%), Bekaa (2.40%), Beirut (2.16%), Mount Lebanon (2.07%) and North (1.57%) regions.