Inflation confirms its upward trend in April 2022, increasing to 7.5% against 7.2% in March, 7% in February and 6.7% in January, said the National Institute of Statistics (INS), in its monthly bulletin on the consumer price index.
This rise is explained mainly by the acceleration of the pace of price hikes 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 prices of foodstuffs (7.4% against 6.1%) and prices for transportation goods and services (6.7% vs. 5.9%).
8.7% jump in food prices
In April 2022, food prices rose 8.7 % year-over-year. 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%.
Increase of 9.3% in prices of manufactured goods and services
Over a year, prices of manufactured goods leaped by 9.3% due to the rise in prices of construction 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 prices of restaurant, cafe and hotel services, 3.4% for health services and 4.5% for rents.
In terms of underlying inflation and inflation of framed products, the underlying inflation rate (excluding food and energy) rose to 7.2% after 6.8% the previous month.
Prices of free goods (unframed) increased by 7.8% over one year. Framed products price increased by 6.7%. Free food products rose by 10.2% compared to 1.2% for framed food products.
Consumer prices up 1.4% over one month
In April 2022, consumer prices increased by 1.4% after a 0.8% in March and a.03% 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 increase by 6.3% in April, due to the end of the winter sales coinciding with the preparations for the Eid holidays. Prices of clothing items increase by 6.3%, shoes by 7.3% and accessories by 2.2%.
Regarding food prices, they increase by 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 cereal products (1.9%) and prices of edible oils (1.5%).
Prices of transport goods and services increased by 1.4% in April, mainly due to the 2.5% rise in prices of vehicle expenses following the implementation of the fuel new tariffs.
