The Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of October 2020. The CPI of October 2020 reached to 96.27 point showing a decrease by 0.19% when compared to CPI of September 2020. Compared to CPI of October 2019, [Y-o-Y basis], a decrease of 2.39% has been recorded in the general index (CPI) of this month.
This release of CPI, is the tenth 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 ( October 2020 to September 2020):
An analysis [on M-o-M basis] of CPI for October 2020 compared with CPI, September 2020, shows that there are six main groups, where respective indices in this month have decreased, namely: “Clothing and Footwear” by 2.34%, “Recreation and Culture” by 1.11%, , “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 0.85%, “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 0.81%, “Transport” by 0.13%, and “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 0.12%. An increase has been recorded in “Food and Beverages” by 1.29%, “Health” by 0.94%, “Education” by 0.88%, “Restaurants and Hotels” by 0.41%, “Communication” by 0.05%, “Tobacco” had remained flat at the last month’s price level.
2. Annual change ( October 2020 to October 2019):
A comparison of the CPI, October 2020 with the CPI, October 2019 (Annual Change), a decrease has been recorded in the general index (CPI), by 2.39%. This [Y-o-Y] price decrease primary due to the prices decline in three groups namely: “Recreation and Culture” by 19.69%, “Clothing and Footwear” by 6.27%, “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 5.48%. An increase has been shown in price levels in nine groups namely: “Tobacco “by 8.37%, “Restaurants and Hotels” by 3.91%, “Education” by 2.68%, “Transport” by 2.37%. “Health” by 1.69%, “Food and Beverages” by 1.58%, “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 1.08%, “Communication” by 0.89%, and “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 0.45%.
The CPI of October, 2020 excluding “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” group stands at 97.69 points showing a slightly decrease of 0.03% when compared to the index of September 2020, and a 1.46% when compared to the CPI of October 2019.
