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 5.34% in September 2020, compared to 3.61% in the previous month. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI soared by 131.05% to 251.50 in September 2020, compared to 108.85 a year earlier as all index constituents saw a sharp rise in their respective prices. In details, the index portrays a 425.35% annual appreciation in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 422.50% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 131.79% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a shambolic 699.72% rally in the prices of furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (3.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 444.08% 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 saw a monthly hike in their CPI values, led by the South (6.24%), followed by the North (5.94%), Beirut (5.25%), Mount Lebanon (5.14%), Bekaa (5.12%), and Nabatieh (4.27%).