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 10.25% in August 2021, compared to 24.08% 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 137.75% to 567.65 in August 2021, compared to 238.76 a year earlier. The average increase in Lebanon’s CPI stood at 133.01% in the first eight 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 205.53% annual appreciation in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 290.40% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 290.55% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a shambolic 147.55% rally in the prices of furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (3.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 281.80% 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 (12.84%) followed by the North (12.21%), Bekaa (11.78%), South (9.85%), Mount Lebanon (9.67%) and Beirut (7.17%) regions.