(MENAFN) According to the Statistical Centre for the Co-operation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf (GCC-Stat), the annual inflation rates in the GCC region ranged between 1.06 percent and 3.8 percent by the end of August 2014, Gulf Daily News reported.
Qatar registered the highest rise in inflation among the GCC states, recording an increase by 3.8 percent of prices by end of August 2014, compared with August last year, followed by Bahrain with 3.1 percent, then Saudi Arabia with 2.8 percent, Kuwait with 2.71 percent, the UAE with 2.42 percent and Oman with 1.06 percent.
Compared to July 2014, inflation rates rose by 0.7 percent in Qatar, 0.4 percent in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, 0.25 percent in Oman, 0.1 percent in Bahrain, and 0.08 percent in Kuwait.
In term of sectors in each country, the tobacco prices in Kuwait registered an increase by 12.42 percent, which is the highest rate during August, while prices for the recreation and culture category rose by 10.9 percent in Saudi Arabia and both Qatar and Bahrain registered an increase in the housing and utility prices by 7.9 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively, in Oman prices of furniture and household goods went up by 7.24`percent and miscellaneous goods and services in the UAE increased by 5.09 percent.
However, inflation rates decreased in other categories in August when compared to the same month of last year, like communication costs in Kuwait, which decreased by 0.69 percent, in Oman and the UAE clothing and footwear prices fell by 1.19 percent and 0.28 percent, respectively, while in Bahrain, prices of furniture and household goods decreased slightly by 0.1 percent.
However, neither Saudi Arabia nor Qatar registered any decrease in any of the recording categories through to August 2014.
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