Tunisia – The inflation rate remained stable at 6.7% in October 2024, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) said on Tuesday.

This stability is partly due to the accelerated increase in prices for the "restaurants, cafés, and hotels" group on a year-over-year basis (11.1% in October 2024, compared to 8.8% in September) and for food products (9.3% in October, compared to 9.2% in September).

It is also due to the slowdown in the price increases for the "Clothing and footwear" group (9.5% in October, compared to 9.7% in September).

Increase in food prices

Food prices rose by 9.3% year-on-year, driven by increases in the prices of lamb (21.4%), dried fruits (15.2%), poultry (14.1%), fresh fish (13.9%), vegetables (13.1%), beef (11%), and fruits (6.8%). In contrast, egg prices decreased by 5.7%.

As for manufactured products, their prices increased by 6% year-on-year, following the rise in prices for clothing and footwear (9.5%) and household cleaning products (8.1%).

Services price rose by 5.4% year-on-year, mainly due to the increase in the prices of services in the "restaurants, cafés, and hotels" group (11.1%).

Regarding core inflation (excluding food and energy), it slightly increased to 6.3% in October 2024, compared to 6.2% in the previous month.

The prices of deregulated products (non-controlled) rose by 7.7% year-on-year, while the prices of regulated products increased by 3.5%. Unregulated food products saw a rise of 10.3%, compared to 2.4% for regulated food products.

Consumer prices rise by 0.8% month-on-month

In October 2024, consumer prices rose by 0.8% compared to September 2024, following an increase in the prices of the "clothing and footwear" group (6.2%), the "restaurants, cafés, and hotels" group (2.5%), and food products (0.2%).

It is important to note that the 0.2% month-on-month rise in food prices was due to the increase in poultry prices (1.1%), egg prices (1.1%), fresh vegetables (1%), fresh fruit (0.5%), and fresh fish (0.5%). On the other hand, edible oil prices decreased by 2.1%.

The increase in prices in the "restaurants, cafés, and hotels" group (+2.5%) is attributed to the rise in restaurant and café service prices (3.2%).

As for the increase in prices for products in the "clothing and footwear" group (+6.2%), it is explained by the end of the summer sales. Thus, clothing prices rose by 6.1%, footwear by 7.3%, fabrics by 1%, and various accessories by 2%.

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