Inflation rate slightly decreases to 10.1% in April 2023 (INS)

The inflation rate slightly decreased to 10.1% in April 2023, against 10.3% in March and 10.4% in the previous month, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) announced on Saturday.

This decline despite the monthly increase is due to the deceleration in the rate of price spikes between April and March 2023, compared to the same period last year.

The core inflation rate (excluding food and energy) also went from 7.8 % to 7.7% in the previous month.

Yet, prices of free (unregulated) products went up by 11.2% year-on-year.

The prices of regulated products rose by 6.5%.

Free food products were up by 18.3%, compared to 0.6% for food products with regulated prices.

In general, the decline in the inflation rate was seen in the increase rate of food prices (15.6% against 15.7% in March), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (1.4% against 4.1% in March) and transport services prices (10.2% against 11.4% in March).

The rise in food prices (15.6%) was mainly due to the increase in prices of sheep meat (30.4%), eggs (29.8%), poultry meat (27.5%), edible oils (23.8%) and beef (20.9%).

The rise in prices of manufactured goods and services (8.6%) is due to the 8% rise in prices of construction materials, 9.3% for clothing products and 10.1% for household cleaning products.

The increase in prices for services was 7.5% year-on-year, mainly due to the rise in prices for restaurants, cafés and hotels by 10.2%, public and private transport services by 16.7% and financial services by 20.7%.

Consumer prices edged up by 1.2% in April 2023, following a 0.7% rise in the previous month, due to a 6.7% increase in clothing prices (with the end of the winter sales and the Eid festivities), and a 1.5% increase in food prices.