The inflation rate fell to 8.6% in October from 9% in September, 2023, according to the release on the household consumer price index for the month of October 2023 by the National Institute of Statistics issued Sunday. This fall in inflation, according to the INS data, was due to a slowdown in the rate of price increases between October and September, 2023 compared with the same period in 2022. Indeed, the annual rate of increase for the 'Food' group slowed from 13.9% to 13.1%, while the 'Furniture, household equipment and routine household maintenance' group fell from 9.1% to 8.8%. In October 2023, food prices increased by 13.1% compared to the previous year, mainly due to the rise in the coffee prices by 35%, prices of sheepmeat by 29.8%, prices of edible oils by 28%, prices of egg by 20.2% and prices of fresh fruit by 14.6% Industrial goods and services Over one year, prices for industrial goods rose by 7.7%, driven by a 6.1% rise in the price of construction materials, a 9.7% rise in the price of clothing and an 8.6% rise in the price of household goods. In services, prices went up by 6.2 % year on year, mainly due to a 10.2 % increase in the price of restaurants, cafés and hotels, a 14.3 % increase in the price of public and private transport services, a 13.3 % increase in the price of financial services and a 5.1 % increase in the price of insurance services. Core inflation and inflation of regulated products The core inflation rate (excluding food and energy) remained unchanged in October at 7.4%. Prices of non regulated products increased by 9.7% year-on-year. Prices of regulated products rose by 5.2%. The price of non regulated food by 14.8%, compared with 2.2% for regulated food. Sectoral contributions to inflation The main components 'Industry' and 'Services' made the largest contributions to total inflation, at 2.8% and 2.1% respectively, while 'Energy' made the smallest contribution, at 0.2%. Contributions to inflation by pricing scheme "Free non-food" and "free food" groups made the largest contributions to inflation at 4% and 3.4%, respectively. On the other hand, the "regulated food products" group made the smallest contribution at 0.1%. Consumer prices rose by 0.7% in October 2023 compared with the previous month The consumer price index rose by 0.7% in October 2023 compared with the previous month, after a rise of 0.8% in September 2023. This was mainly due to a 6.4% increase in the price of clothing and footwear, a 0.1% rise in food prices and a 0.4% increase in the price of educational services and materials. Food Over one month, food prices increased slightly by 0.1%, after edible oil prices went up by 2.5%, condiments by 2.6%, beef by 1.4% and sheepmeat by 1.1%. On the other hand, vegetable prices fell by 1.9% and fruit prices by 0.9%. Rise in clothing prices In October, clothing prices rose by 6.4% due to the end of the summer sales. Clothing prices rose by 6.4%, footwear by 7.3%, fabrics by 1.6% and miscellaneous accessories by 2.1%.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse