Doha: Qatar’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) witnessed a marginal increase of 0.13 percent in August when compared to the previous month (July 2022), reaching at 103.78 points. When compared on annual basis, the consumer prices in Qatar in August also increased by 4.80 percent compared to the CPI of the same period last year (August 2021), data released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) show.
A month-on-month (M-o-M) analysis of the CPI for August 2022 compared with CPI of July 2022, showed that there were five main groups where respective indices in this month have increased, while four main groups decreased and three groups remained unchanged.
The groups that showed increase were: “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 2.61 percent, “Food and Beverages” by 2.16 percent, “Clothing and Footwear” by 0.43 percent, “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 0.11 percent, and “Education” by 0.5 percent.
A decrease has been recorded on four main groups namely: “Recreation and Culture” by 4.33 percent, “Transport” by 1.00 percent, “Restaurants and Hotels” by 0.19 percent, and “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 0.09 percent. “Tobacco”, “Health”, and “Communication” had remained flat at the last month’s price level.
A comparison of the CPI for August 2022 with the CPI of August 2021 (Annual Change), showed an increase has been recorded in the general index (CPI), by 4.80 percent. This year-on-year (Y-o-Y) price increase primarily due to the prices rising in eight groups namely: “Recreation and Culture” by 27.88 percent, followed by “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 8.75 percent, “Food and Beverages” by 5.77 percent, “Clothing and Footwear” by 2.24 percent, “Restaurants and Hotels” by 1.49 percent, “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 1.39 percent, “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 0.36 percent, and “Education” by 0.31 percent.
A decrease has been shown in price levels in “Health” by 3.38 percent, “Transport” by 3.2 percent, and “Communication” by 1.24 percent. While no change was recorded on “Tobacco”.
