Muscat:Inflation across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries remained stable at 2.2% in July 2026, marking a slight increase from 2.1% in June. This rate continues to be moderate and below the averages recorded by several major global economic groupings.
According to Qatar News Agency, data from the GCC Statistical Center (GCC-Stat) indicated that the most significant contributors to annual inflation were housing, water, electricity, and gas, which collectively added 0.82 percentage points. Food and non-alcoholic beverages followed, contributing 0.51 percentage points, while transport added 0.31 percentage points. Miscellaneous goods and services, as well as restaurants and hotels, each contributed 0.16 percentage points to the inflation rate.
Culture and recreation accounted for a contribution of 0.09 percentage points, with education adding 0.05 percentage points. Insurance and financial services, along with communications, each contributed 0.03 percentage points. Health, and furniture and household equipment added 0.01 percentage points each. Interestingly, tobacco and alcoholic beverages made no impact on inflation, while clothing and footwear reduced the overall rate by 0.03 percentage points.
On an annual basis, the steepest price increase was observed in the housing, water, electricity, and gas category, with a rise of 3.3% compared to July 2025. Prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages, and miscellaneous goods and services both increased by 2.8%. Other notable increases included 2.7% in culture and recreation, 2.4% in transport, and 2.3% in restaurants and hotels. Education, and insurance and financial services each saw a 1.4% rise, while communications increased by 0.6%. Tobacco and alcoholic beverages, as well as health, rose by 0.3%, and furniture and household equipment edged up by 0.1%. Clothing and footwear was the only category to see a decline, falling by 0.7%.
Month-on-month, the GCC consumer price index (CPI) rose by 0.3% in July compared to June. Culture and recreation experienced the largest monthly increase at 2%, followed by housing, water, electricity, and gas at 0.6%. Restaurants and hotels saw a rise of 0.5%, transport 0.3%, and food and non-alcoholic beverages 0.2%. Insurance and financial services, and health each rose by 0.1%, while prices in tobacco and alcoholic beverages, communications, and education remained unchanged.
Conversely, prices in miscellaneous goods and services fell by 0.9%, and clothing and footwear, along with furniture and household equipment, each declined by 0.1%.
The GCC's annual inflation rate remains below those experienced by major global economic groupings, with the OECD countries at 4.1%, G20 at 3.9%, and the Group of Seven (G7), European Union, and eurozone each at 3%.