Muscat: The overall increase was driven primarily by a 6.1% surge in prices within the personal goods and miscellaneous services group, followed by a 3.2% increase in the health group and a 1.7% rise in transportation costs. Modest hikes were also seen in restaurants and hotels (0.7%), clothing and footwear (0.5%), culture and entertainment (0.3%), and furniture and maintenance (0.3%). Education costs edged up slightly by 0.1%.
Meanwhile, food and non-alcoholic beverages saw a 0.7% decrease. However, within this group, fruit prices jumped by 5.1%, followed by unclassified food products (3.9%), sugar, jam, honey and sweets (3.2%), dairy (3.0%), and oils and fats (1.1%). Non-alcoholic beverages inched up by 0.1%.
On the other hand, vegetable prices dropped sharply by 10.2%, fish and seafood by 7.0%, meat by 0.6%, and bread and grains by 0.2%. Prices in the housing, utilities, communications, and tobacco groups remained unchanged.
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Regionally, Al Dakhiliyah and Musandam governorates experienced the highest inflation rates at 1.4%, followed by South Al Sharqiyah (0.9%) and Al Dhahirah (0.8%). Muscat and Dhofar recorded a 0.6% increase, while Al Wusta and Al Buraimi saw a rise of 0.5%. North Al Batinah had a marginal increase of 0.1%, whereas South Al Batinah and North Al Sharqiyah registered a 0.3% decline in inflation.
