Saudi inflation inches up 0.6%

Saudi Arabia’s consumer price index increased 0.6 per cent in September from a year earlier and was 0.2 per cent higher month on month, government data showed on Thursday.

The annual rate was marginally above a rise of 0.3 per cent in August and 0.4 per cent in July, data from Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics showed. That compared with a rise of 6.2 per cent in June, the last

month affected by the tripling of value added tax (VAT) to 15 per cent in July last year.

“Food and Beverages prices were the main driver of the inflation rate in September 2021 due to their high importance in the Saudi consumer basket (with a weight of 18 per cent),” the General Authority for Statistics said.

Food prices rose 2.6 per cent due to a 12.5 per cent rise in vegetable prices and meat and poultry prices increasing by 2 per cent.

Transport prices rose 5.9 per cent on the back of a 44.9 per cent increase in gasoline prices, the statistics

authority said.