Dubai June consumer prices edge higher

Dubai June consumer prices edge higher

Prices rise for second month in a row after long period of declines.

July 19, 2010 2:44 by Samuel Potter

Dubai consumer prices edged higher in June, rising 0.15 percent from the previous month, boosted mainly by increasing food prices, data showed on Monday.

This compared to a 0.78 percent rise in May that reversed a six-month run of declines.

The global downturn slashed consumer price growth across the Gulf oil producing region from record peaks in 2008, with some countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar seeing months of deflation last year.

Dubai is a member of the UAE but also publishes separate inflation data.

In the first half of 2010, prices were up 0.64 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, also led by rising costs of food, which edged up 0.45 percent.

Historical data beyond 2008, when annual inflation reached a peak of 10.8 percent, is not available.

The UAE has yet to release federal inflation data for June.

Consumer prices in the UAE, the world’s third-largest oil exporter, rose by 0.88 percent year-on-year in May and fell 0.07 percent on the month.

The data for the UAE and the individual emirates are not directly comparable as basket weights differ.

Dubai, which lacks the oil wealth of its neighbour Abu Dhabi, took a big hit from the 2008 global crisis and recent debt restructuring problems, dragging down the UAE economy.

Prices in the key housing and energy component, which has a 44 percent weight in the Dubai basket, rose by 0.01 percent month-on-month in June, after a 0.59 percent increase in May.

Food prices, which account for 11 percent of the overall index, rose 1.08 percent in June, after increasing by 1.37 percent in the previous month.

(Reporting by Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Toby Chopra)

REUTERS