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 7.76% in April 2021, compared to 8.33% in the previous month. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI soared by 121.66% to 356.65 in April 2021, compared to 160.90 a year earlier. The average monthly increase in Lebanon’s CPI stood at 144% in the first four months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. All index constituents saw a sharp rise in their respective prices. In details, the index portrays a 336.95% annual appreciation in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 228.61% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 239.46% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a shambolic 501.43% rally in the prices of furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (3.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 400.63% 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 (10.69%) followed by the Nabatieh (9.82%), South (8.33%), Mount Lebanon (6.90%), Beirut (6.35%) and the Bekaa (6.29%) regions.