According to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), the monthly change in Lebanon’s consumer price index stood at 2.87% in January 2024, compared to a mere 0.02% in December 2023. On an annual basis, Lebanon’s CPI rallied by 177.25% to 6,149.46 in January 2024, compared to 2,217.99 in January of the previous year. 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 180.96% increase in the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (20.0% weight in the index), a 103.65% 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 87.97% rally in the prices of housing – water, electricity, gas & other fuels (11.8% weight in the index), not to mention the frantic 146.54% rise in healthcare prices (7.7% weight in the index), some 595.18% appreciation in education prices (6.6% weight in the index) and an unprecedented 115.92% 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. It is worth noting that restaurants & hotels prices soared by 154.11% in January 2024 (2.8% weight in the index) and were accompanied by some 126.59% rally in the prices of recreation, amusement and culture (2.4% weight in the index) as the Lebanese economy has shifted to a dollarized one. The following section captures the fluctuation in the key constituents of Lebanon’s consumer basket:

On a geographical basis, all regions across Lebanon saw a monthly rise in their CPI values, with the sharpest increase taking place in Beirut (6.22%), followed by the Mount Lebanon (2.88%), North (2.76%), Bekaa (2.25%), South (0.94%) and Nabatieh (0.93%) regions.