The Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of September 2020. The CPI of September 2020 reached to 96.45 point showing an increase by 0.27% when compared to CPI of August 2020. Compared to CPI of September 2019, [Y-o-Y basis], a decrease of 2.97% has been recorded in the general index (CPI) of this month.
This release of CPI, is the ninth 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) and table (1) show the relative importance (weights) of commodities and services groups in the consumer price basket for 2018.
1. Monthly change (September 2020 to August 2020):
An analysis [on M-o-M basis] of CPI for September 2020 compared with CPI, August 2020, shows that there are six main groups, where respective indices in this month have increased, namely: “Recreation and Culture” by 2.23%, “Clothing and Footwear” by 1.55%, “Transport” by 1.39%, “Restaurants and Hotels” by 0.13%, “Furniture and Household Equipment” and “Education” slightly increased (almost stable) by 0.01% each. A decrease has been recorded in “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 1.17% and “Food and Beverages” by 0.97%. “Tobacco”, “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel”, “Health”, and “Communication” had remained flat at the last month’s price level.
2. Annual change (September 2020 to August 2019):
A comparison of the CPI, September 2020 with the CPI, September 2019 (Annual Change), a decrease has been recorded in the general index (CPI), by 2.97%. This [Y-o-Y] price decrease primary due to the prices decline in six groups namely: “Recreation and Culture” by 20.98%, “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 4.75%, “Clothing and Footwear” by 4.25%, “Communication” by 0.81%, “Food and Beverages” by 0.27%, and “Transport” by 0.13%. An increase has been shown in price levels in also six groups namely: “Tobacco “by 8.37%, “Restaurants and Hotels” by 4.43%, “Education” by 1.78%, “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 1.48%, “Health” by 0.95%, and “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 0.60%. Graph (4) shows a monthly and an annual change in CPI during 2019 and 2020.
The CPI of September, 2020 excluding “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” group stands at 97.73 points showing an increase of 0.35% when compared to the index of August 2020, and a decrease of 2.41% when compared to the CPI of September 2019.
