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 9.71% in June 2021, compared to 6.06% in the previous month. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI soared by 100.64% to 414.97 in June 2021, compared to 206.83 a year earlier. The average increase in Lebanon’s CPI stood at 133.82% in the first half of 2021 when compared to the same period in 2020. All index constituents saw a sharp rise in their respective prices. In details, the index portrays a 172.08% annual appreciation in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 221.80% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 195.44% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a shambolic 196.00% rally in the prices of furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (3.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 236.98% 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 South (12.23%) followed by the North (10.96%), Nabatieh (9.66%), Bekaa (9.62%), Mount Lebanon (9.43%) and Beirut (7.03%) regions.