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 3.89% in October 2020, compared to 5.34% in the previous month. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI soared by 136.80% to 261.28 in October 2020, compared to 110.34 a year earlier as all index constituents saw a sharp rise in their respective prices. In details, the index portrays a 467.81% annual appreciation in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 441.16% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 133.18% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a shambolic 694.65% rally in the prices of furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (3.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 462.86% 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 Beirut (4.85%) followed by Nabatieh (4.39%), the North (3.97%), the South (3.78%), Mount Lebanon (3.67%), and Bekaa (3.46%) regions.