The Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of July 2020. The CPI of July 2020 reached to 95.73 point showing a decrease by 0.23% when compared to CPI of June 2020. Compared to CPI of July 2019, [Y-o-Y basis], a decrease of 3.41% has been recorded in the general index (CPI) of this month.
This release of CPI, is the seventh 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.
1. Monthly change (July 2020 to June 2020):
An analysis [on M-o-M basis] of CPI for July 2020 compared with CPI, June 2020, shows that there are six main groups, where respective indices in this month have decreased, namely: “Recreation and Culture” by 5.76%, “Clothing and Footwear” by 1.48%, “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 1.27%, “Food and Beverages” by 0.38% “Health” by 0.21%, “Education” by 0.06%. An increase has been recorded in “Restaurants and Hotels” by 4.69%, “Communication” by 1.77%, “Transport” by 1.35%, “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 0.50%, and “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 0.47%. “Tobacco” had remained flat at the last month’s price level.
2. Annual change (July 2020 to July 2019):
A comparison of the CPI, July 2020 with the CPI, July 2019 (Annual Change), a decrease has been recorded in the general index (CPI), by 3.41%. This [Y-o-Y] price decrease primary due to the prices decline in six groups namely: “Recreation and Culture” by 21.23%, “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 4.86%, “Clothing and Footwear” by 4.37%, “Transport” by 2.94%, “Communication” by 0.81%, “Food and Beverages” by 0.27%,. An increase has been shown in price levels in five groups namely: “Tobacco” by 8.37%, “Restaurants and Hotels” by 4.29%, “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 1.26%, “Education” by 1.14%, and “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 1.00% .
The CPI of July , 2020 excluding “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” group stands at 96.68 points showing an increase of 0.04% when compared to the index of June 2020, and a decrease of 2.93% when compared to the CPI of July 2019.
