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 7.69% in January 2022, compared to 16.52% in the previous month. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI soared by 239.69% to 992.24 in January 2022, compared to 292.01 a year earlier. All index constituents saw a sharp rise in their respective prices. In details, the index portrays a 225.56% annual appreciation in the prices of clothing & footwear (5.2% weight in the index), a 483.15% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 541.42% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index), and a shambolic 423.13% rally in the prices of housing – water, electricity, gas & other fuels (11.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 449.65% 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 Mount Lebanon (8.08%) followed by the Beirut (8.06%), Nabatieh (8.05%), North (7.22%), South (6.96%) and Bekaa (6.60%) regions.