According to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), the monthly change in Lebanon’s consumer price index stood at 0.92% in August 2023, compared to 6.80% in the previous month. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI soared by 229.85% to 4,903.51 in August, compared to 1,486.59 in August of the previous year, with the average annual inflation rate for the first eight months of 2023 standing at 232.97%. All index constituents saw a sharp rise in their respective prices owing to the acute depreciation of the Lebanese Pound against the US Dollar. In details, the index portrays a 274.24% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 230.78% surge in transportation prices (13.1% weight in the index) amid the rise in fuel & gasoline prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a shambolic 155.42% rally in the prices of housing – water, electricity, gas & other fuels (11.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 235.08% rise in health prices (7.7% weight in the index), the 192.14% appreciation in education prices (6.6% weight in the index) and the unprecedented 135.24% hike in communication prices (4.5% weight in the index) after the shift to partial or total fresh dollar pricing in the healthcare, education and communication sectors. The following section captures the fluctuation in the key constituents of Lebanon’s consumer basket:

On a geographical basis, the Nabatieh (2.10%), Bekaa (1.95%), Mount Lebanon (1.37%) and North (0.84%) regions saw a monthly rise in their CPI values, while the Beirut (-1.66%) and South (0.47%) regions registered monthly contractions.