Falling rents drive down Qatar price index in Sept

Qatar’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) decreased 1.1 percent in September compared to the previous month - fuelled by falling rents and food prices, according to the Gulf state's statistics authority.

The CPI now stands at 122.44, down 4.7 percent from the beginning of 2009, the authority added in information published on its website on Sunday.

The index, a measure of the general price level of goods and services consumed by the average household in Qatar, has shown steady declines in 2009 following a period of high inflation the previous year.
    
The latest CPI revealed that food prices in September decreased 0.6 percent when compared to August and were 1.2 percent lower than at the beginning of 2009.

Rental prices declined in September by 3.2 percent with a 4.8 percent decrease in rental prices for villas and a 5.6 percent decrease for stand-alone houses.

Apartment rental prices were down 18 percent since January 2009, the report added.

But clothing and footwear prices halted their decline seen over the previous four months to increasing 0.6 percent in September, being pushed up by a 3.1 increase in footwear prices.

Air transport last month continued to get cheaper with prices down 2.2 percent, compared to August.

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