Sultanate's inflation rate shows marginal growth

Muscat: Oman’s consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation registered a 0.33 per cent upswing in December 2015, from the previous month.
Average inflation for 2015 rose 0.06 per cent, compared to 2014.
On a year-on-year basis, the Sultanate’s inflation marked a decline of 0.14 per cent in December 2015, according to the latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Last year, the food and non-alcoholic beverages group (with a weightage of nearly 24 per cent in the CPI basket), saw an average price drop of 0.81 per cent, compared to 2014. Clothing and footwear, and transport groups were also down by 0.92 per cent and 0.05 per cent, respectively year-on-year in 2015.
In contrast, the housing, electricity, water and fuels group marked a rise of 0.43 per cent, while the health segment posted a price rise of 3.42 per cent in 2015 on a year-on-year basis.
Communication, as well as furnishing, household equipment and maintenance groups too saw an average price increase last year of 0.54 per cent and 1.52 per cent respectively, compared to 2014. Restaurants and hotels prices rose by 0.34 per cent. Education too registered an average annual price increase of 4.11 per cent last year, compared to the previous year.
The December prices of bread and cereals were down marginally by 0.01 per cent, from November, while fish and seafood turned costlier by 10.76 per cent as also meat, which rose by 0.34 per cent. Milk, cheese and eggs, along with oil and fat prices fell by 0.02 per cent and 0.33 per cent. Vegetables too declined by 0.18 per cent, even as the price of fruits moved up 0.54 per cent. Non-alcoholic beverages saw prices rise by 0.05 per cent in December, compared with November, last year.
Clothing and footwear prices in December fell 0.07 per cent, while housing, water, electricity, fuel dipped 0.01 per cent, compared to November 2015 prices. Furnishing, household equipment and maintenance, and transport prices were also down 0.03 per cent and 0.39 per cent.
However, communication logged a price hike of 3.06 per cent in December. Prices of recreation and culture decreased 0.07 per cent, while restaurant and hotel prices declined 0.02 per cent in December, compared with November.