Arab News: Saudi Arabia’s annual inflation rate held steady at 1.8 percent in June, with housing rents and personal care costs continuing to drive price gains in the Kingdom, official data showed.
According to the latest report released by the General Authority for Statistics, the Kingdom’s Consumer Price Index was only marginally higher than the previous month, with just a 0.2 percent rise.
Saudi Arabia’s inflation rate has held in a narrow band over the past year, ranging between 1.7 and 2.3 percent since June 2025, easing from a peak of 2.3 percent in August before stabilizing around 1.7 to 1.8 percent in recent months.
This stability stands in contrast to the broader global picture, where inflationary pressures have been building. The International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook projected global headline inflation would rise from 4.1 percent in 2025 to 4.7 percent in 2026, before easing to 3.9 percent in 2027.
Against that backdrop, Saudi Arabia’s 1.8 percent rate, along with Oman’s 2.8 percent figure in June, remained well below the global average, underscoring relative price stability across the Gulf even as energy costs climbed elsewhere.
In its latest report, GASTAT said the Kingdom’s annual inflation was “mainly driven by a rise in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel prices by 3.5 percent, food and beverages prices by 1.4 percent, and transport prices by 1.7 percent.”
The figures showed that actual housing rents increased by 4.4 percent, remaining the largest driver of inflation.
Personal effects driving inflation
According to the report, personal care, social protection, and other goods and services posted the highest annual gain at 3.8 percent. This was largely due to a sharp 13.6 percent surge in other personal effects, driven by a 14.7 percent rise in jewelry and watches prices.
Recreation, sport, and culture prices rose 2.5 percent year on year in June, driven by a 4.2 percent increase in holiday packages.
Conversely, prices for furnishings, household equipment, and routine home maintenance fell by 0.6 percent, while clothing and footwear declined by 0.4 percent.
The housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels division contributed the most to the overall annual inflation rate, at 0.7 percentage points, followed by the food and beverages division at 0.3 percentage points.
The personal care, social protection, and other goods and services division and the transport division each contributed 0.2 percentage points, with the remaining divisions contributing a combined 0.3 percentage points.
Food and transport up month on month
On a monthly basis, the food and beverages division led the gains with a 0.7 percent increase, driven by a 0.7 percent increase in food prices.
The transport division rose 0.4 percent month on month in June, while housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels rose 0.1 percent.
Offsetting these monthly increases were declines in personal care, social protection, and other goods and services of 1 percent, while the restaurants and accommodation services division and the information and communication division each fell by 0.1 percent.
GASTAT said the CPI reflects changes in prices paid by consumers for a fixed basket of 582 items, with weights determined using the results of the 2023 Household Income and Expenditure Survey, alongside other supplementary data sources on household final consumption expenditure.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2650967/business-economy
