Riyadh – Mubasher: The wholesale price index (WPI) in Saudi Arabia increased by 6% last month on an annual basis, according to official data released by the Saudi General Authority for Statistics (GaStat).

The annual increase in September prices was slightly higher than that of last August at 5.6%, and it has mainly resulted from higher prices of agriculture and fishery products by 15.9%.

The impact of agriculture and fishery products came due to their weight in the index, as well as the overall impact of the increase of the Value Added Tax (VAT) from 5% to 15% in July 2020.

On the other hand, the prices of refined petroleum products declined by 17.1% on an annual basis.

On a monthly basis, the WPI increased by 0.5% due to the rise in the prices of metal products, machinery and equipment by 1.1%.