Tunis - The inflation rate stood at 5% in February 2026, up 0.1% compared with January 2026, according to the Consumer Price Index published on Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

This increase is mainly due to the acceleration in the pace of price rises for the "Food" group (6.7% in February 2026 compared with 5.9% in January 2026).

Conversely, a slowdown in the pace of price increases was recorded for the "Clothing and footwear" group (8.9% in February 2026 compared with 10% in January 2026).

Annual price developments

On an annual basis, the 6.7% rise in food product prices is mainly explained by rises in the prices of fruit (+17.7%), lamb (+16.3%), fresh fish (+14%) and poultry (+12.8%). Conversely, cooking oil prices decreased by 10.3%.

Manufactured goods prices were also up by 4.6%, due to increases in clothing and footwear prices of 8.9% and household cleaning products of 4.8%.

For services, prices surged by 3.8% over one year, mainly explained by the 11.3% rise in accommodation services prices.

Inflation rate on a monthly basis up 0.1%

The 0.1% increase in the inflation rate on a monthly basis (compared with January 2026) is mainly due to the rise in prices for the food products group.

Conversely, prices for the "Clothing and footwear" group declined on the occasion of the winter sales.

Over one month, prices for the "Food" group edged up by 1.3%, due to the 3% rise in fresh fish prices, 2.9% in sheep meat, 2.8% in fresh fruit and 2.1% in poultry.

Conversely, cooking oil prices fell by 0.3%.

Clothing prices also dropped by 4.6% due to the start of the winter sales season. Clothing article prices were down by 4.8%, footwear by 4.7%, clothing accessories by 1.2% and fabrics by 1%.

The "Manufactured products" and "Services" groups made the strongest contribution to overall inflation, at 1.7% and 1.3% respectively.

The "Non-food free" and "Food free" groups contributed by 2.9% and 1.9%, respectively, to inflation.

Core inflation rate down to 4.6%

In February 2026, the core inflation rate (excluding food products and energy) declined to 4.6%, after a rate of 4.9% recorded in January 2026.

Free (unregulated) product prices rose by 6.1% over one year.

Regulated product prices recorded growth of 0.8%.

Free food products saw a rise of 7.6% compared with 0.2% for regulated-price food products.

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