Qatar’s consumer
price index increased for the first time this year in November as
transportation, communications and clothing costs rose.
Prices
increased 0.02 percent, according to an e-mailed statement from the
Qatar Statistics Authority today. Prices rose 0.35 percent from the
previous month.
Consumer price
declines had been slowing since dropping 5.6 percent in January amid an
acceleration in economic growth. Qatar’s economy is projected to expand
21 percent next year after growing 16 percent this year, Finance
Minister Yousef Kamal said on November 2. The economy grew 9 percent in 2009.
“I do expect
price growth acceleration during the course of next year and certainly
into 2012 as the domestic economy strengthens,” Simon Williams,
Dubai-based chief Middle East Economist at HSBC, said in a
telephone interview.
“Domestic demand, the primary driver of inflation,
has been subdued. There is a lot of spare capacity in the Qatari
economy.”
More than half
of the gross domestic product of Qatar comes from oil and gas. Crude
has more than doubled from a four-year low in December 2008 and is up
about 15 percent year to date, trading at more than $91 a barrel on Wednesday.
Transportation
and communications increased 4.1 percent in November, while clothing
increased 3.1 percent, according to Wednesday’s statement.
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