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 24.08% in July 2021, compared to 9.71% in the previous month, as some subsidies were lifted/decreased, especially on fuel, which reflected dramatically on prices. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI soared by 123.43% to 514.89 in July 2021, compared to 230.45 a year earlier. The average increase in Lebanon’s CPI stood at 132.34% in the first seven months 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 184.20% annual appreciation in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 248.13% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 252.63% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a shambolic 178.99% rally in the prices of furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (3.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 245.77% 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 Nabatieh (32.21%) followed by the Bekaa (27.07%), North (25.75%), Beirut (24.75%), South (23.76%) and Mount Lebanon (21.78%) regions.