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 4.59% in February 2021, compared to 2.84% in the previous month. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI soared by 155.40% to 305.53 in February 2021, compared to 119.63 a year earlier as all index constituents saw a sharp rise in their respective prices. In details, the index portrays a 611.85% annual appreciation in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 417.07% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 228.95% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a shambolic 609.38% rally in the prices of furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (3.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 618.02% rise in the prices of restaurants & hotels (2.8% 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 North (7.57%) followed by the Nabatieh (4.62%), South (4.36%), Bekaa (3.52%), Mount Lebanon (3.47%) and the Beirut (3.25%) regions.