Consumer Price Index Down in May 2019

Doha, June 12 (QNA) - The Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of May 2019. The CPI of May 2019 reached to 107.67 point (base year is 2013), showing a decrease of 0.56 percent when compared to CPI of April 2019. Compared to CPI of May 2018, Y-o-Y basis, a decrease of 0.66 percent has been recorded in the general index (CPI) of this month. According to PSA's press release, an analysis on M-o-M basis of CPI for May 2019 compared with April 2019 CPI, shows that there are sex main groups, where respective indices in this month have decreased, namely: "Recreation and Culture" by 3.24 percent, "Clothing and Footwear" by 2.36 percent, "Food and Beverages" by 2.13 percent, "Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel" by 0.56 percent, "Miscellaneous Goods and Services" by 0.16 percent, and "Restaurants and Hotels" by 0.10 percent. An increase had shown on "Transport" by 1.82 percent and "Furniture and Household Equipment" by 0.04 percent. "Tobacco", "Health", "Communication", and "Education" groups had remained flat at the last month's price level. Table (1) show the monthly Comparison for CPI May 2019. A comparison of the CPI, May 2019 with the CPI, May 2018 (Annual Change), a decrease has been recorded in the general index (CPI), by 0.66 percent. This Y-o-Y price decrease is primary due to the decreasing prices seen in the five groups, namely: "Communication" by 10.45 percent, "Recreation and Culture" by 7.26 percent, "Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel" by 2.18 percent, "Food and Beverages" by 1.29 percent, and "Miscellaneous Goods and Services" by 0.88 percent. An increase has been shown in price levels in seven groups namely: "Tobacco" by 127.19 percent, "Education" by 9.25 percent, "Furniture and Household Equipment" by 1.77 percent, "Transport" by 1.56 percent, "Clothing and Footwear" by 0.61 percent, "Health" by 0.83 percent, "Restaurants and Hotels" by 0.35 percent. Table (2) shows the annual comparison of CPI May 2019. Regards the contribution relative, which is a percentage reflects the different contribution of the main groups on the CPI annual rate. For the month of May 2019, noticed that the "Recreation and Culture" had the highest contribution on the same direction of CPI annual rate, by 132.49 percent, followed by "Education" contributed by 93.10 percent but in opposite direction. The CPI of May 2019 excluding "Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuel" group stands at 108.25 points showing a decrease of 0.56 percent when compared to the index of April 2019, and a 0.23 percent when compared to the CPI of May 2018. (QNA)