Inflation in Abu Dhabi now stands at an annual rate of 2.3 per cent, according to a report from the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi (Scad).
Prices in the first quarter of the year rose by 0.3 per cent against the previous quarter.
Inflationary increases were driven by gains in the cost of housing, restaurants and hotels.
Scad said that inflation hit higher-income households harder than lower-income households, with the top 20 per cent facing an inflation rate of 2.4 per cent, compared with an inflation rate of 1.8 per cent for the bottom 20 per cent.
Housing and rent prices rose 1.9 per cent year-on-year, according to Scad, while prices in restaurants and hotels rose by 5.6 per cent.
This conflicts with recent data from the property consultancy JLL, which said on Tuesday that prime rents in the capital had risen 17 per cent last year and by 4 per cent during the first quarter of this year.
Butti Al Qubaisi, Scad’s director general, said the Government’s rent price inflation figures were accurate.
“I think we are correct, and that we don’t have problems with any numbers,” he said.
Inflation in Abu Dhabi is expected to rise to 2.5 per cent in the second quarter, Scad predicted.
abouyamourn@thenational.ae
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