Department
of Statistics: Stability of the
Inflation Rate at 6.14% for
the first eleven months of 2006
Department
of Statistics: Stability of the
Inflation Rate at 6.14% for
the first eleven months of 2006
Inflation in the consumers price continued its relative stability witnessed since the third quarter of this year. This came after the increase in fuel prices and its reflection on other commodities and services during the second quarter of the same year. The report, prepared by the Directorate of Economic Statistics/ Department of Statistics, revealed that this stability indicates non-presence of any inflationary pressures after the second quarter of this year.
The annual inflation rate (average index number for the first eleven months of this year compared with the same period of last year) has reached 6.14% compared with an annual rate of 6.17% during the first ten months of this year and 6.24% during the first nine months.
As for the most important commodities and services which contributed to the price increase during the first eleven months of this year compared with the same period of last year 2005, it is noticed that the "Transport and Communications" and the "Fuel and Lighting" groups which have been affected directly by the fuel price hike and contributed largely to the increase in prices by 1.27 percentage points for the "Transport and Communications" group and 1.08 percentage points for the "Fuel and Lighting" group. Meanwhile, the price increase of Tobacco and Cigarettes has contributed 0.54 percentage points. In addition, the rise in the prices of "Local Olive Oil" has affected the "Oils and Fats" group which has contributed 0.53 percentage points to the price increase. Moreover. The "Sugar and its products" group has contributed 0.41 percentage point to the consumer price inflation.
The annual price increase measured by the month- to- month variation (November 2006 compared with November 2005) was 5.83% and the monthly increase in prices during the last month only (November 2006 compared with October 2006) was 0.33%.
The following diagram shows the trend of the consumers price index during 2004 and 2005 and the first eleven months of 2006.
