Monday, Apr 02, 2012
Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: The cost of living in Abu Dhabi rose by almost two per cent in 2011, pushed up by rising prices of food and drink, government data revealed yesterday.
The Statistics Centre of Abu Dhabi (SCAD) said that Abu Dhabis Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose from 119.3 points in 2010 to 121.6 points in 2011, a 1.9 per cent increase in prices for an average basket of goods and services.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages accounted for 67.7 per cent of the percentage rise in the index, due to increases in the prices of most of the subgroups falling within this group, SCAD said in its annual report published yesterday.
The biggest surges were seen in coffee and tea, the price of which climbed 15.3 per cent, followed by meat, which increased 14.7 per cent.
Mineral water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices and fruit rose 8.6 per cent, while the cost of bread rose by 7.3 per cent. Meanwhile, the cost of housing and utilities the next largest contributor to the increase in the CPI in 2011 accounted for 31.9 per cent of the increase in the CPI.
While the prices of this group increased by only 1.5 per cent, the size of the contribution reflects the large weight for this group in the index.
Trend to continue
Mohammad Ali Yasin, a UAE-based capital markets specialist and financial analyst, said that oil prices had played a role in the food price hikes and warned that the trend was set to continue.
If oil prices remain at the levels they are now or increase further, that will definitely increase primary food commodities because were importing economies of these items, said Yasin.
Within the UAE capital, the main impact on the inflation rate comes from the rental and food prices, he said.
The rental is going down; thats definitely the case, but food prices are going up, he said.
Since the crisis, inflation has gone down because rents have gone down, but the cost of living has not gone down. Food, petrol, transportation, even just going out, the cost of living in general has increased.
By Samia Badih, Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
