The Central Administration of Statistics' Consumer Price Index increased by 4.5% in 2017 compared to a decline of 0.8% in 2016. The CPI increased by 5% in December 2017 from the same month of 2016. The prices of clothing & footwear grew by 17.4% year-on-year in December 2017, followed by the cost of water, electricity, gas & other fuels (+8.9%), the prices of alcoholic beverages & tobacco (+7.6%), transportation costs (+5.9%), actual rents (+5.3%), recreation & entertainment costs (5.1%), the cost of furnishings & household equipment and healthcare costs (+4.6% each), prices at restaurants & hotels (+4%), imputed rents and the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (+3.7% each), miscellaneous goods & services (+3.1%), the cost of education (+3%) and communication costs (+0.8%). The distribution of actual rents shows that new rents increased by 3.8% annually in December 2017, while old rents grew by 7.1% from the same month of 2016.

Further, the CPI grew by 0.8% in December 2017 from the preceding month, following an increase of 0.6% in November 2017. The CPI grew by 1.5% month-on-month in the North in December 2017, by 1% in Nabatieh, by 0.8% in Mount Lebanon, by 0.7% in the Bekaa, by 0.5% in the South and by 0.4% in Beirut. In parallel, the Fuel Price Index increased by 2.1% in December 2017, while the Education Price Index was unchanged from the previous month.