Abu Dhabi annual inflation rises to 3.8% in September

Dubai : Abu Dhabi's annual inflation rate edged up to 3.8 per cent in September, its highest since at least the beginning of 2009, as key living costs rose helped by one-off impacts, official data showed yesterday.

Consumer prices in Abu Dhabi started to accelerate in December after five months of declines as the economy picked up.

Inflation in Abu Dhabi, which has 10 per cent of the world's oil reserves and accounts for more than 60 per cent of the UAE economy, stood at 3.6 per cent in August.

It climbed to a record high of 14.9 per cent in the oil-boom year of 2008.

On the month, Abu Dhabi consumer prices jumped 1.0 per cent in September, the fastest pace in 14 months, up from a 0.8 per cent rise in the previous month, data from Abu Dhabi Statistics Centre (SCAD) showed.

"Overall, the numbers do not indicate any sort of spike up," said Giyas Gokkent, head of research at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

"We are still on course to have relatively limited single-digit inflation."

The UAE, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, has yet to release inflation data for September.

Incomparable

The data for individual emirates and the UAE are not directly comparable as basket weights differ.

In Abu Dhabi, food prices, which account for 16 per cent of the consumer price basket, rose 0.9 per cent month-on-month, slightly down from a 1.3 per cent jump in August.

Food prices usually soar during Ramadan, which ended in mid-September, as people enjoy more elaborate evening meals after the daylight fasting.

Housing costs, the largest item in the basket, grew 0.6 per cent in September, after staying flat for two months in a row.