Jeddah - Arab Today
Saudi Arabia’s inflation edged down to 4.1 percent last month from 4.2 percent in April.
Saudi Arabia’s Central Department of Statistics released the May consumer price data on Sunday.
Transport costs jumped 11.3 percent from a year earlier in May after the government hiked gasoline prices in late December.
Prices of housing and utilities climbed 7.7 percent after utility fees were raised in December; food and beverage prices rose 0.3 percent.
In a report released recently, Jadwa Investment said inflation reached 4.2 percent in April, posting a marginal slowdown from 4.3 percent in March.
On a monthly basis, prices of foodstuffs rose in April for the first time in four months, partially due to seasonal factors ahead of Ramadan. This increase has likely been impacted by an upward trend in international food prices as well, with the IMF food price index posting its first year-on-year increase in two years.
The Jadwa chart book for June also said that money supply continued to trend downwards in May.
This was likely due to a larger negative contribution from demand deposits, which were already down by 5.2 percent, year-on-year, in April.
While annual growth in broad money supply remained negative, its actual decline since the start of the year was only SR22.1 billion.
Source: Arab News