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 16.42% in October 2021, compared to 8.16% in the previous month. This owes to the complete removal of fuel subsidies, which hiked fuel prices by 34.90% on a monthly basis in addition to having spillover effects on several other sectors. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI soared by 173.57% to 714.78 in October 2021, compared to 261.28 a year earlier. The average increase in Lebanon’s CPI stood at 138.18% in the first ten 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 209.08% annual appreciation in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 303.66% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 508.23% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a shambolic 150.02% rally in the prices of furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (3.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 301.97% 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 Bekaa (20.44%) followed by the Nabatieh (20.07%), North (18.50%), South (17.97%), Beirut (14.61%) and Mount Lebanon (14.55%) regions.