After five consecutive months of decline, inflation rose to 9.3% in August 2023, compared with 9.1% in July 2023 and 9.3% in June 2023, the National Statistics Institute (INS) announced on Tuesday. This rise in inflation is due to an acceleration in the rate of price increases between August and July this year compared with the same period last year, particularly in the 'Food' group, where the year-on-year price increase rose from 14.2% to 15.3%, the 'Alcoholic beverages and tobacco' group (from 1.8% to 4.6%) and the 'Hotels and restaurants' group (from 11.2% to 11.5%). According to the INS, the 'Manufactured goods' group and the 'Fresh food' group are the sectors that have made the largest contribution to overall inflation, at 2.6% and 2.5% respectively, while the 'Energy' group has made the smallest contribution, at 0.4%. In terms of the contribution to inflation by scheme, the 'free food' and 'free non-food groups' groups were equally the largest contributors to inflation, at 4%. On the other hand, the regulated food group made the smallest contribution at 0.1%. In August 2023, food prices were 15.3% higher than a year before. This increase was mainly due to higher prices for ground coffee (35%), sheep meat (33%), eggs (29.7%), edible oils (23.7%) and beef (20.4%). Industrial goods up by 7.6% Over the year as a whole, industrial goods rose by 7.6%, led by increases of 6.7% for building materials, 9.2% for clothing and 8.9% for household goods. In services, prices went up by 6.4% year-on-year, mainly due to an 11.5% rise in restaurants, cafés and hotels, a 12.2% increase in public and private transport services and a 20.7% rise in financial services, according to the INS. Core inflation fell slightly to 7.2% The core inflation (excluding food and energy) fell slightly to 7.2% from 7.3% in the previous month. Prices of unregulated products rose by 10.5% year-on-year. Prices of regulated products went up by 5.2%. Prices of unregulated food rose by 17.7%, compared to 2.1% for regulated food.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse