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Abu Dhabi inflation hits 2.8% in March

ABU DHABI - The housing rents, water and power cost and petroleum prices rose 7.7 per cent

The prices rose in Abu Dhabi by 2.8 per cent year-on-year in March, with the largest contribution coming from housing, water and power and fuels prices.
The inflation rate for the first quarter of 2016 was 3.2 per cent year-on-year, says the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi or SCAD.
"The annual inflation rate for the first quarter of 2016 was 3.2 per cent, with the CPI for the first quarter of 2016 rising to 105.6 points, compared with 102.4 points for the same period of 2015," the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi said.
The CPI increased by 2.8 per cent year-on-year, the Centre said. In a month-on-month comparison it rose 0.1 per cent in March 2016.
The housing rents, water and power cost and petroleum prices rose 7.7 per cent in the period that accounted for the largest rise in the index during for the first quarter of 2016 contributing 79.7 per cent. The most significant groups, which saw increases in prices during March 2016 compared with February 2016, were 'Housing, water, electricity, gas and fuels' with 1.0 per cent. The 'miscellaneous goods and services' group contributed 6.7 per cent year-on-year to the overall prices of the 'Food and beverages' group, which contributed 6.0 per cent in the CPI, raised by 1.6 per cent for quarter ended March 31, 2016.
The transportation costs which has 14.7 per cent weight age in the index had a positive impact of 1.9 per cent, while communications which has five per cent weight age contributed six per cent to the index.
The rise in consumer prices for the first quarter of 2016 contributed to an increase of 3.4 per cent in consumer prices for households of the bottom welfare group. For the other welfare groups, consumer prices rose by 3.2 per cent and 3.1 per cent for households of the middle and the top quintiles, the Centre said.
- haseeb@khaleejtimes.com