Lebanon stops collecting inflation data

When Lebanon’s central bank announced a stimulus package in January, it was largely welcomed. But for the critics the main concern was inflation — more money in the economy would lead to a hike in prices, effectively negating the effect of the new money altogether. But these critics have been silenced, not by being proven wrong but by the government’s decision to stop collecting data on inflation altogether. Lebanon doesn’t publish much in the way of professional economic data — there are no regularly published figures for unemployment, jobs created or foreign investment. Since 2008, however, inflation has been a notable exception to this rule: being measured in a professional, systematic way by the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS). But in January 2013, CAS failed to publish its monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI). The only other time this happened, in January 2011, it was just for one month. This time,