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Abu Dhabi’s Year To February Inflation At 4.5 % YoY |
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Abu Dhabi's inflation rate in consumer price index (CPI) for the first two months of 2018 was 4.5% compared with the same period of 2017, as shown by the increase in the CPI to 112.6% during the first two months of 2018, up from 107.7% over the same period of 2017, according to Statistical Center-Abu Dhabi (SCAD) for the month of February. Comparing monthly price data, the report revealed a 4.3% rise in the CPI during February 2018 compared with February 2017. In the meantime consumer prices nudged down 0.3% in February 2018 compared with January 2018. The report on the consumer price index (CPI) and the inflation rate in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi for February 2018, with 2014 fixed as the base year, also details CPI results by welfare level, household type and geographical region. SCAD’s report also presented the contribution of the main expenditure groups to the overall inflation. The groups are categorised according to the International Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose. As the results indicate, consumer inflation during the first two months of 2018 was driven mainly by the transport group, which increased by 12.5%, contributing 37.9% of the overall increase in the CPI. The next largest contributor to the rise in consumer prices during this period was the ‘Food & Beverages’ group, which accounted for 16.2% to the overall increase in the CPI during the first two months of 2018 compared with the same period of 2017, reflecting a 6.3% surge in the group’s prices. In addition the ‘Miscellaneous goods and services’ group contributed 15.1% of the overall increase in the CPI for the first two months of 2018 compared with the same period of 2017 as the prices of the group increased by 9.8% over the same period. Meanwhile the "Housing, water, electricity, gas and fuel" group detracted 20.7% from the overall increase in the CPI during the first two months of 2018, reflecting a 2.7% fall in house rents during the period under review. Since the impact of inflation varies with the household’s welfare level, a breakdown of the rise in consumer prices during first two months of 2018 compared with same period of 2017 indicates an increase of 4.6% in consumer prices for households of the bottom welfare level. The corresponding rises for households of the middle and the top welfare levels were 4.2% and 4.8, respectively. Analysing the overall rise in consumer prices by household type, SCAD’s report showed a 4.7% rise in consumer prices for citizen households during the first two months of 2018, compared with same period of 2017. The corresponding rise for non-citizen and share household types was 4.3% and 5.2%, respectively. Abu Dhabi region contributed 54..9% of the total 4.5% increase in consumer prices observed during the first two months of 2018 compared with the same period of 2017, while Al-Ain and Al Dhafra regions accounted for 37.8% and 7.2% of the rise, respectively. |
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