GCC inflation increases 1.5% in 2015

Muscat: Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) inflation rose 1.5 per cent in 2015 compared to 2014, GCC Statistical Centre (GCC-Stat) said in its report.
This index represents the GCC region and excludes the group of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels from the national indices of the GCC countries.
The GCC-Stat pointed out that Kuwait witnessed the highest GCC inflation rate by 2.2 per cent in 2015 compared to 2014 whereas the Sultanate of Oman recorded a slight decrease by 0.1 per cent during the same period.
The GCC inflation stood at about 1.3 per cent in December 2015 compared to December 2014. The GCC inflation ranged between 0.3 per cent in the Sultanate of Oman and 2.7 per cent in Qatar.
As for the commodities group in December 2015 compared to December 2014, the education group recorded the highest GCC inflation by 5 per cent whereas prices of transport, restaurants and hotels groups remained unchanged for the same period last year.
The GCC-Stat added that the GCC national inflation index ranged between 0.14 per cent in the Sultanate of Oman and 3.59 per cent in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December 2015 compared to the corresponding period in 2014.
The UAE witnessed the highest inflation rate compared with other GCC states as it hit 3.59 per cent, followed by Kuwait by 3.03 per cent, Qatar by 2.7 per cent, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by 2.3 per cent and Bahrain by 0.7 per cent while the Sultanate of Oman recorded a decline by 0.14 per cent.