By Carolina McCabe
Rabat – The High Commission for Planning (HCP) has released economic data on Morocco’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) and underlying rate of inflation from the final period of 2018. The CPI in December of 2018 was down 0.7 percent from November 2018. Overall, the average annual CPI increased by 1.9 percent in 2018.
CPI, which measures changes in the cost of products and demonstrates the cost of living, is also an indicator of inflation.
Over 2018, the food product index rose by 1.3 percent and the non-food product index rose by 1.8 percent.
The annual underlying rate of inflation was 0.7 percent over 2018. The underlying rate of inflation measures the inflationary pressures in the economy that are predominantly caused by market forces. The measurement also excludes the prices of volatile products.
The 0.7 percent decline in CPI in December came about as a result of a 1.2 percent fall in the food index and a 0.4 percent drop in the non-food index.
Read Also: Morocco’s Consumer Price Index Dropped by 0.1% in October 2017
From November to December of 2018, fruit prices fell by 7.5 percent, seafood by 3.8 percent, oils and fats by 2 percent, and vegetables by 1.7 percent. However, prices of meat increased by 0.3 percent and milk, cheese, and eggs increased by 0.2 percent.
Among non-food products, fuel prices fell significantly, by 8.7 percent, following global trends.
The regions with the greatest increases in annual CPI were Dakhla, at 3.0 percent, Laayoune and Safi at 2.7 percent, and Fez and Guelmim at 2.2 percent. The smallest increases were in Settat at 0.6 percent, Beni-Mellal at 1.1 percent, and Rabat at 1.2 percent.
