Saudi Arabia annual inflation rate falls to 1.9 per cent
Saudi Arabia’s annual inflation rate fell moderately to 1.9 per cent in November from 2.2 per cent October, according to government data.
Inflation based on the consumer price index has hovered around 2.1 per cent to 2.3 per cent for most of the year, propped up by rising housing prices.
Housing rental prices rose 5.4 per cent, while passenger transport prices increased 6.4 per cent, according to Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics.
To tackle the rise in rents, Saudi Arabia’s real estate authority in September laid out new rules that included a five-year suspension of annual rental increases for residential and commercial properties located within Riyadh’s urban boundaries.
Earlier this year, the government approved a Real Estate Ownership and Investment Law, which will ease property purchases by foreigners when it takes effect next year.
The kingdom is in the process of building several massive new developments around Riyadh as part of its Vision 2030 programme to boost both tourism and the private sector in a bid to diversify the economy from oil.
On a month-on-month basis, November’s CPI increased a marginally 0.1 per cent.