The annual inflation rate in Saudi Arabia increased to 1.9% during October, up from 1.7% in September.
This marks the “highest pace” in 14 months and comes on the back of high housing rents.
Details
The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) indicated that rents for housing increased by 11.6% last month.
This was due to a rise in apartment rents by 11.3%, which pushed the prices of the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels category up by 9.6%.
So what
GASTAT stated that rents have a significant weight in the overall inflation basket in the Kingdom, accounting for 25.5%.
It is worth noting that the rise in this category, especially in larger cities like Riyadh, has been the main exacerbator of inflation in the country for most of 2024.
Some context
Although inflation has remained “relatively low” in the Kingdom this year compared to global levels, there has been a noticeable uptick since July.
KSA level remains among the lowest inflation rates within the G20 countries, however.
The International Monetary Fund expects inflation to remain stable at around 2% over the medium term.
