Consumer Price Index report shows rising cost of living in UAE

This year’s overall Consumer Price Index (CPI) report shows prices for goods in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been on the rise over the past two years; a CPI report measures the change in the price for a basket of consumer goods and services commonly purchased by households, and the CPI in the UAE has increased by 0.92 percent between the end of July and August just this year, while it increased by nearly five percent compared to its value at the end of Aug. 2014.

The biggest jump in price at the national level indicates increased prices for transportation prices, which have jumped by more than 10 percent. After that, restaurants, hotels, housing, medical care and communications have all increased less than half a percent in price over the past year.

At the same time, there were other industry segments that saw a fall in price including textiles, clothing and footwear, which fell just over one percent. Food and soft drink prices have fallen almost a half a percent, while furniture and household goods saw a small price decrease over the past year.

These price fluctuations don’t show the whole picture in the UAE, however. The price changes show some differences at the emirate level, where the CPI fluctuated more in Abu Dhabi than in other emirates.

Abu Dhabi’s overall CPI rose 1.22 percent over the last year, with Ajman and Ras Al-Khaimah both increasing 1.01 percent. Umm Al-Quwain’s prices rose 0.94 percent, with Fujairah putting up similar numbers, coming in at 0.9 percent. The least amount of price fluctuation came from Dubai and Sharjah, which saw increases of 0.82 and 0.53 percent, respectively.