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 8.15% in December 2020, compared to 0.52% in the previous month, with the sizeable hike attributed to an adjustment (44.02%) in transportation prices to incorporate the hike in new car prices. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI soared by 145.84% to 284.04 in December 2020, compared to 115.54 a year earlier as all index constituents saw a sharp rise in their respective prices. In details, the index portrays a 559.77% annual appreciation in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 402.25% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 206.14% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a shambolic 655.14% rally in the prices of furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (3.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 392.46% 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 (4.18%) followed by the North (3.76%), Mount Lebanon (2.97%), Beirut (2.20%), Bekaa (1.28%) and the Nabatieh (1.25%) regions.