inflation is clearly galloping, and each month even more, thus confirming its upward spiral in April 2022, picking up to 7.5% from 7.2% in March, 7% in February and 6.7% in January, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) said in its monthly bulletin on the consumer price index.
This increase is explained mainly by the acceleration of the pace of price increases for alcoholic beverages and tobacco (24.2% against 21% in March) as well as prices of clothing and footwear (10.1% against 9.8%), prices of furniture, household items and routine household maintenance (7.4% against 6.1%) and transportation goods and services (6.7% vs. 5.9%).
Food prices soar to 8.7
Food prices rose 8.7% year-over-year in April 2022. This increase is mainly due to the rise in prices of eggs by 20.4%, edible oils by 20.4%, fresh fruit by 19.5%, fresh vegetables by 12%, poultry by 9%, fresh fish by 9%, cereal derivatives by 9.1% and sheep meat by 6.6%.
Manufactured goods and services even more!
Over one year, prices of manufactured goods went up 9.3% due to the increase in prices of building materials by 11.2%, clothing products by 10.1% and household maintenance products by 6.4%.
In services, the 4.8% year-on-year increase in prices is explained by the 7.2% rise in restaurant, café and hotel services, the 3.4% growth in health services and the 4.5% rise in rents.
In terms of core inflation and inflation of regulated products, the core inflation rate (excluding food and energy) rose to 7.2% from 6.8% the previous month.
Prices of free goods increased by 7.8% over one year. Prices of regulated products went up by 6.7%. Free food products rose by 10.2% compared to 1.2% for regulated food products.
Consumer prices up 1.4% over one month
Consumer prices rose 1.4% from 0.8% in March and 0.3% in February.
This increase is mainly due to the rise in prices of clothing and footwear by 6.3%, food prices by 1.6%, prices of furniture, household goods and routine household maintenance by 1%, as well as prices of transport goods and services by +1.4%.
As for clothing prices, they picked up 6.3% in April, due to the end of the winter sales coinciding with the preparations for the Eid holidays. Prices of clothing items increased by 6.3%, shoes by 7.3% and accessories by 2.2%.
Regarding food prices, they grew 1.6%, in monthly variation, mainly due to an increase in prices of fresh vegetables (4.3%), prices of sheep meat (4.7%), prices of beef (2.3%), prices of fresh fish (3.4%), prices of fresh fruit (2.6%), prices of grain products (1.9%) and prices of edible oils (1.5%).
Prices of transport goods and services went up by 1.4% in April, mainly due to the 2.5% rise in prices of vehicle expenses, in the wake of the new fuel tariffs.
