Riyadh – Mubasher: The consumer price index (CPI) of Saudi Arabia accelerated 5.3% in April this year when compared to the same month in 2020, the Saudi General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) said on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia’s CPI in April was mainly driven by the prices of food and beverages as well as transport, which increased by 8.4% and 14.9%, respectively.

Prices of tobacco and communication services also affected the inflation rate last month, after rising 13.1% and 13.5%, respectively.

Meanwhile, prices of education in addition to housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels declined by 9.1% and 2.6%, respectively.

“Consumer prices still reflect an increase of the value-added tax (VAT) from 5% to 15% in July 2020,” according to GaStat.

On a monthly basis, the inflation rate in April was also 0.2% higher than 4.9% in March, which was the lowest level in nine months. It was affected by the increase in transport prices by 0.8%.