• 0.1% slightly monthly increase on CPI of September 2017, compared with the previous month.
•  0.5% annual decrease on CPI of September 2017, compared with September 2016.

The Ministry of Development Planning & Statistics (MDPS) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of September 2017. The CPI of September, 2017 reached to 108.4 (base year is 2013) showing an increase by 0.1%, when compared to CPI of August, 2017. Compared to CPI of September, 2016, [Y-o-Y basis] of 0.5% decrease has been recorded in the general index (CPI) of this month.
    
 An analysis [on M-o-M basis] of CPI for September, 2017 compared with August, 2017 CPI, shows that there are four main groups, where respective indices in this month have increased, namely: “Clothing and Footwear” by 1.8%, “Food and Beverages” by 0.8%, “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 0.6%, and “Education” by 0.4%.  A decrease in prices is also noticed in “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 0.7 %, “Transport” by 0.3%, and “Restaurants and Hotels” by 0.1%. The other groups: “Tobacco”, “Furniture and Household Equipment”, “Health”, “Communication”, and “Recreation and Culture” have remained flat at the last month’s price level. Graph (1) and (2) show the movement of monthly CPIs of “Food and Beverages” and “Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas”.

              A comparison of the CPI, September, 2017 with the CPI, September, 2016 (Annual Change), a decline have been recorded in the general index (CPI), by 0.5%. This [Y-o-Y] price drop is primarily due to the decreasing prices seen in the seven groups, namely: “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” by 4.7%, “Recreation and Culture” by 4.5%, “Communication” by 1.1%, “Restaurants and Hotels” by 1.0%, “Miscellaneous Goods and Services” by 0.8%, and “Clothing and Footwear” by 0.5%,  and “Furniture and Household Equipment” by 0.6%. Also, there has been an increase in price levels in four groups, namely: “Transport” by 6.1%”, following by “Food and Beverages” by 3.6%, “Health” by 2.7%, “Education” by 0.4%. No changes recorded in “Tobacco” group. Table (1) and Graph (3) shows the monthly and annual comparison for CPI of September 2017, also graph (4) shows a monthly and an annual change in CPI during September 2016 to September 2017.
  
The CPI of September, 2017 excluding “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” group stands at 107.9 showing  an increase  of 0.3 % when compared to the index of August 2017, and  an 0.8%  when compared to the CPI of September 2016. Table (2) presents CPI excluding “Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel” and Graph (5) shows the monthly percentage change of CPI with and without Housing component.

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