Caretaker Economy and Trade Minister Amine Salam and Regional Director of the World Food Program Matthieu Hollingworth, on Sept. 13, 2024, during the press conference. (Photo provided by the Ministry of Economy and Trade)
Caretaker Economy and Trade Minister Amine Salam announced Friday the release of a new monthly index for the prices of essential food products, developed in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP). According to the minister, the index aims « to establish a unified system allowing consumers to monitor average prices of basic goods in Lebanon and to enhance the ministry’s ability to track price fluctuations and maintain food security. »
Named the Market Food Price Index (MFPI), it differs from the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is calculated monthly by the Central Administration of Statistics and serves as a measure of inflation in Lebanon.
For July 2024, the first month for which data is published, the index reached 127.4 points, up 0.2% from the previous month and up 20% year-over-year. In comparison, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) saw a monthly increase of 1.97% in July 2024 and a 35.37% rise year-over-year.
100 Products in the Long Term
Calculated with the dollar prices of 63 food products grouped into 12 categories, the Market Food Price Index measures the average price change of these products each month. It is part of a broader report that tracks the prices of 73 products — a number expected to increase to 100 in the future — and aims to monitor and track the prices of essential goods in the Lebanese market. These prices are collected from over 1,000 stores across the country.
The base month, for which the index value is set at 100 points and from which data collection began, is January 2023. Thus, any monthly index value above 100 indicates an increase in the prices of basic food products for that month, while an index value below 100 reflects a decrease in these prices.
All food product category indices increased year-over-year as of July 2024, except for eggs, which saw a decrease of 8.3%. On the other hand, categories with the highest annual price increases were poultry (+58%), vegetables (+37%) and fruits (+30.6%). The report attributes this trend to « the conflict along the Lebanese border. »
On a monthly basis, the poultry price index saw the largest increase (+5.4%), while the fruit price index experienced the largest decrease (-4.4%) due to export difficulties with local production, which led to a surplus of fruits in the local market.
Finally, the report notes that the most significant increases in the Market Food Price Index were observed in Beirut (132 points) and North Lebanon (129.3 points), while the smallest increases were in Nabatiyeh (122.2 points) and Akkar (122.5 points). According to the report, the lower indices in these two latter regions are attributed to their access to locally produced food, which helped keep their indices lower than those in other regions.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.