Published by the Central Statistics Administration, the consumer price index recorded a 0.18 percent decrease in September compared with August 2024. (Credit: João Sousa)
For the first time since February 2022 and only the second time since the outbreak of the economic crisis in Lebanon at the end of 2019, the consumer price index (CPI), which calculates price trends in Lebanese pounds, posted a monthly decline in September.
Published by the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), this index recorded a slight decrease of 0.18 percent in September compared with August 2024, whereas it had risen by 0.64 percent in monthly terms during that month. On an annual basis, prices rose by 32.92 percent between August and September, compared with 35 percent in the previous month, continuing the trend towards a relative slowdown in consumer price rises that began several months ago, in the wake of the stabilization of the Lebanese pound exchange rate.
This dynamic is partly due to the fact that, in September 2023, the pound/dollar parity had reached its current level (89,500 pounds to the dollar), after several years of fluctuations that saw it lose over 90 percent of its value. Despite the fall in the CPI on a monthly basis, indicating a very slight decrease in prices in one month, the real cost of living in September 2024 remains 32.92 pecrent more expensive than in September 2023.
Education spending
In detail, education spending is the biggest contributor to this increase (+587.24 percent year-on-year), as schools and universities continue to adjust their prices, which have been heavily impacted by the economic crisis. They are ahead of prices for miscellaneous goods and services (+41.66 percent) and leisure (+31.11 percent). At the same time, many categories are showing annualized growth rates in excess of 20 percent, including telecommunications (+28.4 percent), clothing and footwear (+24.47 percent), restaurants and hotels (22.28 percent) and accommodation (+20.27 percent).
On a monthly basis, the majority of percentage changes are below 1 percent in absolute terms, with the exception of food and non-alcoholic beverages (+2.96 percent), restaurant and hotel prices (+1.56 percent) and furnishings (+1.38 percent). On the other hand, prices are down on a monthly basis in four categories: Transport (-3.3 percent), clothing and footwear (-1.37 percent), telecommunications (-0.23 percent) and housing costs (-0.01 percent). Still on a monthly basis, the CPI decline was greatest in Nabatieh (-0.77 percent) and South Lebanon (-0.34 percent). Next came the Bekaa (-0.28 percent), Mount Lebanon (-0.22 percent) and Beirut (-0.01 percent). Only North Lebanon (-0.17 percent) saw a monthly price increase (+0.17 percent).
This article was translated from L'Orient-Le Jour.
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