UAE cost of living eases as consumer price index falls 2.39 per cent in January

Dubai: Consumer prices in the United Arab Emirates fell 2.39 per cent in January, according to government data, when compared to a year earlier.

Consumer prices also fell 0.12 per cent from December, the data released by the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority showed.

Economists have said prices would ease in 2019 in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as the impact of the introduction of value-added tax last year on prices would soften.

In December 2018, the Central Bank of UAE (CBUAE) projected that inflation would have increased by 3.6 per cent by the end of the year, but noted that the continued downward trajectory of the housing CPI inflation and the continued easing in labour markets for the remainder of the year would contain inflationary pressures.

The inflation rate, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose during the third quarter of 2018 to reach 3.6 per cent compared to an annual increase of 3.4 per cent in the previous quarter underpinned by the increase in oil prices in international markets.