Inflation rises marginally in Oman

Muscat: Oman’s CPI based inflation registered an increase of 0.10 per cent in January compared to the previous month (December 2015) while it showed a rise of 0.20 per cent on a year-on-year basis, according to the data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels subset carrying a weightage of 26.47 per cent in the CPI basket rose by 0.01 while transport (weightage of over 19 per cent) prices went up 2.39 per cent in January against December figures.
Foods and non-alcoholic beverages saw a price fall of 1.68 per cent in January compared to December, driven primarily by a drop of 4.25 per cent and 9.94 per cent respectively in the fruits and vegetables groups, as well as decline of 0.15 per cent in meat and 0.24 per cent in fish and seafood prices.
Bread and cereals went up 0.14 per cent, while milk, cheese and eggs rose 0.20 per cent. Prices of oil and fats group, and sugar, jam, honey and confectionary group increased by 0.13 per cent and 0.06 per cent in order. Other food products and non-alcoholic beverages posted a price rise of 0.12 per cent and 0.17 per cent.
Clothing and footwear prices went up 0.18 per cent while furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance subset registered a price rise of 0.81 per cent in January compared to December figures.
Health, and restaurants and hotels groups too recorded a price rise of 0.58 per cent and 0.19 per cent respectively. Education and communication groups, on the other hand, maintained price stability over the last two months.