Qatar’s consumer price index (CPI) has shown an increase of 0.48% in August compared to the CPI in July, the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Monday.
Compared to the CPI of August 2019, [Y-o-Y basis], a decrease of 4.05% has been recorded in the general index (CPI) of this month.
The latest release of CPI, which is the eighth issuance using the new base of 2018, has been calculated from the results of the household income and expenditure survey 2017/2018, the PSA noted.
The ‘Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose’ (CIOCOP) has been used, which divided the prices basket to 12 main groups, starting with ‘Food and non-alcoholic beverages’ group, and ending with ‘Miscellaneous goods and Services’ group.
As many as 737 commodities and services have been covered in all the groups.
The PSA said: “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.