Qatar Consumer Price Index (CPI) for December 2015

Doha, January 13 (QNA) -The Ministry of Development Planning & Statistics (MDPS) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of December 2015. The CPI of December, 2015 is estimated at 106.4, showing a slight decrease Month-on-Month basis by 0.1% when compared to CPI of November 2015. Compared to CPI of December 2014, an increase Year-on-Year basis of 2.7% has been registered in the general index (CPI) of this month. An analysis on Month-on-Month basis of CPI for December, 2015 compared with November, 2015 CPI, shows that there are three main groups, where respective indices in this month have slightly risen, namely: "Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas" by 0.8%,"Recreation and Culture" by 0.3%, Transport" group by 0.2%. A decline in prices is also noticed in "Clothing and Footwear"by 1.9%, "Food and Beverages" by 1.2%, "Furniture and Household Equipment" by 0.7%."Miscellaneous Goods and Services" by 0.4%( primarily due to decrease in gold prices), "The other five groups: "Tobacco", "Health" "Communication", "Education", "Restaurants and Hotels" have remained flat at the last months price level. Graph (4) and (5) show the movement of monthly CPIs of "Food and Beverages" and "Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas". A comparison of the CPI, December, 2015 with the CPI, December, 2014, points a rise in the general index (CPI), by 2.7%. This Year-on-Year price surge is primarily due to the increasing prices seen in the eight groups, namely: "Education" by 18.0%, "Tobacco" by 6.3%, "Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas" by 3.4%, "Communication" by 3.2%,"Transport" by 3.1%,"Recreation and Culture" by 1.6%,"Furniture and Household Equipment" by 1.4%, and "Food and Beverages" by 0.7%. Also, there has been a decrease in price levels in other groups, namely: "Clothing and Footwear"by 1.7%, "Miscellaneous Goods and Services" by 0.6%, "Restaurants and Hotels" by 0.5%, and "Health" by 0.3%. By the end of December 2015, the annual change of CPI was reached to 1.8%. . The CPI of December, 2015 excluding "Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas" group stands at 104.1, showing a slight decrease by 0.4%, when compared to the index of November 2015; and an increase of 2.5% in comparison to the CPI of December, 2014.(QNA)