Saudi Gazette report

Riyadh — On a month-on-month basis, Saudi inflation rate fell 0.3 percent in December, official data showed on Tuesday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for December 2018 dropped to a record low of 0.3% compared to November 2018.

Last November the CPI was 106.5 while in December 2018 it dropped to 106.2, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat).

The GaStat report attributed this monthly decrease to the drop in CPI in six major sectors.

The CPI dropped in the food and beverages sector by 0.5%, housing, water, electricity, gas and other types of fuels 0.5%, transport 0.2%, furniture and household furnishing 0.1%, telecommunication 0.1%, and personal commodities and services 0.1%.

No drop in the CPI was recorded in the sectors linked with tobacco prices, clothes, footwear, health, recreation, culture, education and restaurant and hotels.

However, the CPI in December 2018 was 106.2 as compared to 103.9 in December 2017, registering an increase of 2.2% compared to December 2017.

This was attributed to the rise in the annual CPI of 12 major sectors.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance announced that it has completed the issuance of the (01-2019) and tap issuance of the (09-2017) under the SR-denominated Sukuk program.

The (01-2019) issuance size was set at SR5.370 billion and the (09-2017) tap-issuance was set at SR1.725 billion. Total proceeds of the offer amounted to SR7.095 billion.