The Central Administration of Statistics' Consumer Price Index increased by 6.2% year on-year in the first seven months of 2018 compared to a growth of 4.2% in the same period of 2017. The CPI increased by 7.6% in July 2018 from the same month of 2017. The prices of water, electricity, gas & other fuels grew by 17% year-on-year in July 2018, followed by the prices of clothing & footwear (+14.6%), transportation costs (+12.9%), recreation & entertainment costs (+7.8%), actual rents (+6.1%), the prices of food & non-alcoholic beverages (+6%), healthcare costs (+5.9%), the cost of education (+4.1%), imputed rents (+3.8%), prices at restaurants & hotels (+3.5%), the prices of furnishings & household equipment (+2.9%), miscellaneous goods & services costs (+2.5%), the prices of alcoholic beverages & tobacco (+2%) and communication costs (+1%). The distribution of actual rents shows that old rents grew by 10.1% annually in July 2018, while new rents increased by 3.3% year-on-year. 

Further, the CPI regressed by 0.2% in July 2018 from the preceding month compared to a month-on-month increase of 0.9% in June 2018. The CPI increased by 0.1% month-on-month in July 2018 in the South. In contrast, the CPI regressed by 0.9% in the North, by 0.6% in Beirut and by 0.2% in Nabatieh, while it was unchanged in the Bekaa and Mount Lebanon from the previous month. In parallel, the Fuel Price Index decreased by 1.3% month-on-month in July 2018, while the Education Price Index was unchanged from June.