The Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of May 2020. The CPI of May 2020 reached to 95.66 point showing a decrease by 0.58% when compared to CPI of April 2020. Compared to CPI of May 2019, [Y-o-Y basis], a decrease of 3.12% has been recorded in the general index (CPI) of this month.
This release of CPI, is the fifth issuance using the new base of 2018, calculated from the results of the household income and Expenditure survey 2017/2018. Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (CIOCOP) has been used, which divided the prices basket to twelve main groups, started with “Food and Nonalcoholic beverages” group, and to end up with “Miscellaneous goods and Services” group. 737 commodities and services have been covered all the groups.
Looking at the relative importance of the base year 2018, it has been found that, the pattern of households did not change much during the previous five years, since the relative importance between 2013 and 2018 was almost equal during the period, and no major change was observed on them, the groups of “Food and Beverages”, “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel”, “Transport”, and “Recreation and Culture” still considered as the most important to consumer families, chart No.
Monthly change (May 2020 to April 2020):
An analysis [on M-o-M basis] of CPI for May 2020 compared with CPI, April 2020, shows that there are five main groups, where respective indices in this month have decreased, namely: “Food and Beverages” by 2.37%, “Transport” by 1.24%, “Clothing and Footwear” by 0.43%, “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 0.36%, and “Restaurants and Hotels” by 0.34%. An increase has been recorded in “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 0.75% and in “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 0.10%. The groups of “Tobacco”, “Health”, “Communication”, “Recreation and Culture” and “Education” had remained flat at the last month’s price level.
Annual change (May 2020 to May 2019):
A comparison of the CPI, May 2020 with the CPI, May 2019 (Annual Change), a decrease has been recorded in the general index (CPI), by 3.12%. This [Y-o-Y] price decrease primary due to the prices decline seen in six groups namely: “Recreation and Culture” by 10.77%, “Transport” by 6.11%, “Clothing and Footwear” by 5.58%, “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 3.94%, “Communication” by 3.26%, and “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 0.69%. An increase has been shown in price levels also in six groups namely: “Tobacco” by 4.41%, followed by “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 2.4%, “Health” by 1.30%, “Education” by 1.18%, “Restaurants and Hotels” by 0.45%, and “Food and Beverages” by 0.15%.
The CPI of May, 2020 excluding “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” group stands at 96.28 points showing a decrease of 0.64% when compared to the index of April 2020, and a decrease of 2.81% when compared to the CPI of May 2019.
