Saudi Arabia’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.7% year-on-year in July on the back of higher food prices, as per the government data showed on Monday.
The Kingdom’s CPI stood at 2.3 percent in June.
The food and beverages segment rose 3.9 percent, driven by higher food prices and meat prices in particular, which rose as much as 5.1 percent, the General Authority for Statistics said in a statement.
“Food and beverages prices were the main driver of the inflation rate in July 2022 due to their high relative importance in the Saudi consumer basket (with a weight of 18.8 percent),” the statement said.
The Saudi CPI rose by 0.5 percent in July from June, the month-on-month data showed.
“Saudi inflation is now at or close to a peak and will gradually fall back over the rest of this year and next,” London-based Jason Tuvey, a senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, told Reuters.
“Looking ahead, I think headline inflation is likely to be at or very close to peaking now”. Tuvey said. “Local fuel price caps will drive inflation,” Tuvey added.
