Inflation in Abu Dhabi accelerates in first eight months of the year

CPI incresaes 1.9 per cent year-on-year during the period

Malls are a part of our daily lives, but are they becoming less important to us? The National

Consumer prices in Abu Dhabi edged up 1.9 per cent year-on-year in the first eight months of 2017, with nearly half of the increase coming from housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi (Scad) reported.

Housing, water, electricity, gas and fuels, the largest contributor to the increase with 31.2 per cent weighting in the consumer price index, rose 2.7 per cent in the first eight months, compared with the same period last year, the centre said.

Transport, which has 14.7 per cent weighting, was the second-largest contributor to the price increase in the first eight months of this year, rising by 4.2 per cent during the period, followed by miscellaneous goods and services.

In August, the inflation rate accelerated 1.6 per cent year-on-year, compared with a 1 per cent year-on-year increase in July, according to Scad.

Meanwhile, the UAE Central Bank governor Mubarak Al Mansouri said yesterday that the country's non-oil economic growth is forecast to pick up next year and expand at least 3.5 per cent from 3.1 per cent this year, Reuters
reported.

_______________

Read more: 

_______________

Non-oil GDP is forecast to ­expand by 3.3 per cent this year from 2.7 per cent last year, the IMF has said.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Standard Chartered are both forecasting that the non-oil economy will grow 3.2 per cent this year compared to 2.7 per cent last year.

The IMF and Bank of America Merrill Lynch concur that medium-term non-oil growth will reach 3 per cent or higher, thanks to investments in the lead-up to Expo 2020.