Sunday, May 13, 2012
Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: Consumer prices in the emirate of Abu Dhabi rose 1.8 per cent on average in April from the same month a year earlier, the latest monthly report released yesterday by the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi (Scad) showed.
The largest individual increase was recorded in the restaurants and hotels group which rose by 18.9 per cent, followed by alcoholic beverages and tobacco [up 9.5 per cent] and food and non-alcoholic beverages [up 6.2 per cent], Scad said, adding that prices during April for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels group retreated 1.3 per cent year-on-year.
Compared with March, average consumer prices rose by 0.2 per cent in April, with restaurants and hotels posting the biggest increase (4.9 per cent).
Prices in Abu Dhabi appear to be under control and its expected that they will remain stable in the coming months due to the strengthening of the US dollar to which the UAE dirham is pegged, Mohammad Amerah, an Abu Dhabi-based economist told Gulf News, commenting on Scads latest inflation data.
Holiday impact
April is a month when traditionally people start preparing themselves to go on vacation and so the demand for all sorts of consumer goods goes up.
The report put the average year-on-year rise in consumer prices for the first four months of the year at 1.1 per cent. The food and non-alcoholic beverages group accounted for 73.9 per cent of the rise in the index, due to increases in the prices of most of the sub-groups included in this group. The highest price increases were in the meat sub-group which advanced by 11.5 per cent, followed by fish and seafood [up 13.8 per cent], coffee, tea and cocoa [9.9 per cent], oils and fats [6.6 per cent] and bread and cereals [3.2 per cent], Scad said.
The main group that slowed the rise in consumer prices during the first four months of the year compared with the same period last year were housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels which contributed a negative 30.7 per cent of the overall change in the CPI index, with the average prices of the group falling by 0.9 per cent during the period, the report added.
By Himendra Mohan Kumar, Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
