Saudi Arabia's consumer price index increased by 1.1% in November from a year earlier and was 0.2% higher on the month, government data showed on Wednesday.

The rise was mainly the result of higher prices for transport, which increased by 5.7% on the back of higher gasoline prices, up by 47.9% year on year, the General Authority for Statistics said.

"Transport prices were the main driver of the inflation rate in November 2021 due to their high relative importance in the Saudi consumer basket", it said.

Saudi Arabia has said in its 2022 budget that the inflation rate this year is expected to rise to 3.3% on average, due to the fading of the base effect of a tripling of value added tax in July last the year.

It forecast inflation to rise to 1.3% on average next year.

 

(Reporting by Davide Barbuscia, Editing by Andrew Heavens)