Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia’s wholesale price index (WPI) rose by 11.9% in July this year compared to the same month in 2020, a decrease from 19.8% in June, according to official data.
The annual rise in WPI’s July readings was mainly attributed to a surge of 20.5% in prices of other transportable goods, due to their weight in the index.
“The impact of the increase of the value-added tax (VAT) from 5% to 15% in July 2020 fades out in July 2021 and does not affect the annual change of the WPI anymore,” the Saudi General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) announced on Sunday.
Prices of metal products, machinery, and equipment went up 9.7%. In addition, agriculture and fishery products rose by 5.7%.
On a monthly basis, wholesale prices in Saudi Arabia edged up 0.8% in July compared to June, driven by a 1% growth in the prices of other transportable goods.
The prices of metal products, machinery, and equipment also went up 0.6% due to higher prices of basic metals by 1.7%.
GaStat earlier released a report on the consumer price index (CPI) in Saudi Arabia, which showed an annual rise of 0.4% in the inflation rate last July.
