High oil prices and a weak dollar hurt the Lebanese

ENAR

It is August in Lebanon, which means stifling heat during the day, and humidity that hugs the skin late into the evening like a hot, wet blanket. Traffic jams choking major roads and garbage washing ashore make beating the heat at the beach less appealing, and, adding to the woe, a seaside lunch is becoming a little more pricey. A dollar in Lebanon is just not buying as much these days. Consumer prices are on their way up. Lebanon’s inflation rate reached 7.6 percent this June in a year-on-year comparison of the consumer price index (CPI), a measure of a basket of consumer goods and services gathered by the country’s public bean counter, the Central Administration for Statistics (CAS). Since the start of 2018, however, the inflation rate has risen at a slower pace, at 3.1 percent. There could be a number of contributing factors to year-on-year inflation. These include