DOHA: Consumer price inflation was under control in February although price movements showed an almost negligible upward curve over the previous month.
But, if at all, that points to a trend in the months to come, house rents must be carefully watched.
Essentials like food, housing, utilities and clothing became negligibly expensive in February over the previous month, inflation figures released by the government show.
Housing, which implies rent and is clubbed in the consumer price index (CPI) basket with water, electricity and gas, became 0.74 percent dearer month-on-month.
Clothing and footwear costs went up by 0.49 percent compared to January, while furnishing and home appliances became 0.38 percent dearer.
The prices of food and beverages went up by a negligible 0.2 percent month-on-month, CPI data released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics for February show.
The overall month-on-month price rise was negligible — merely 0.1 percent in February. The data suggested that the cost of transport and restaurants and hotels slid, albeit slightly in the month over January.
Tobacco, medical services, recreation and culture (which include overseas trips for leisure), communications (phones) and education showed no changes in their pricing in the month under review.
House rents continue to drive price rise as evidenced from the fact that the CPI of February showed the rate of inflation down 0.1 percent over the previous month (after housing, water and electricity as a category of people’s expenditure was excluded).
This is the second month the ministry has issued CPI with the base year 2013. The earlier figures were based on 2007 as base year.
The base year is changed every five years to reflect changing social and economic realities and patterns of people’s spending.
The CPI basically tracks the prices of goods and services to reflect consumer price inflation.
In the new CPI basket applicable from this year, four expenditure categories have been either added after bifurcating the previous heads and their weights readjusted.
For example, the ‘Rent, Fuel and Energy’ category has been renamed ‘Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas’ and its weight has been reduced to 21.89 percent in the CPI basket from the previous 32.2 percent.
The reduction is because the earlier data used to be based on assumed rents for Qataris who lived in their own houses. Current CPI figures are based on actual rents paid by people.
Eating out (as suggested by restaurants and hotels), recreation and culture (foreign trips for leisure) and usage of phones (cell phones?) by people have been assigned more weight in the CPI basket, suggesting that people’s expenses on these heads are rising.
The weight of tobacco is slightly down in the CPI basket, from 0.30 percent in 20027 to 0.27 in 2013, suggesting that people are spending less on smoking, apparently due to increasing awareness.
The Peninsula
