Dubai May consumer prices rebound

Dubai :  Dubai consumer prices rebounded in May, rising 0.78 per cent month-on-month, after falling for six months and boosted mainly by increasing housing costs and food prices, data showed yesterday.

That reversed a 0.90 per cent drop in April, the biggest monthly decline since at least 2008.

The global downturn slashed consumer price growth across the Gulf oil producing region from record peaks in 2008, with some countries such as the UAE and Qatar seeing months of deflation last year.

Compared with a year earlier, prices in May rose 0.48 per cent after dipping 0.06 per cent in April, the first annual decline since at least 2008, according to data from the Dubai Statistics Centre.

Historical data beyond 2008, when annual inflation reached a peak of 10.8 per cent, are not available. The UAE has yet to release federal inflation data for May. Consumer prices in the UAE rose by 0.79 per cent year-on-year in April and fell 0.04 per cent on the month.

Abu Dhabi inflation

Inflation in Abu Dhabi reached 0.28 per cent month-on-month and 3.02 per cent year-on-year in May.

Prices in the key housing and energy component, which has a 44 per cent weight in the Dubai basket, rose by 0.59 per cent month-on-month in May, after a 2.4 per cent plunge in April.

Food prices, which account for 11 per cent of the overall index, rose 1.37 per cent in May, after increasing by 0.47 per cent in the previous month.