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The Planning and Statistics Authority put Qatar’s Consumer Price Index at 110.61 points in April 2026. The reading reflected a 0.74 percent decline from March as recreation and culture prices dropped 6.19 percent. Transport costs fell 0.88 percent, clothing and footwear eased 0.61 percent, miscellaneous goods and services declined 0.18 percent and health prices slipped 0.10 percent, the authority’s figures showed. Food and beverage prices rose 1.48 percent over the month while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels increased 0.13 percent.
The index excluding housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels stood at 115.39 points in April. This core measure declined 0.92 percent from March yet rose 2.84 percent from April 2025. Furniture, household goods and maintenance prices gained 0.12 percent and restaurants and hotels edged up 0.07 percent while tobacco, communication and education categories showed no monthly change, according to the authority.
Year-on-year inflation pressures proved strongest in miscellaneous goods and services, which rose 13.82 percent. Food and beverages increased 10.41 percent while clothing and footwear advanced 4.71 percent and education gained 2.09 percent. Housing costs climbed 1.62 percent, restaurants and hotels rose 0.90 percent, furniture increased 0.81 percent and communication advanced 0.75 percent in the annual comparison, the authority reported.
Recreation and culture prices fell 3.18 percent over the year, transport declined 0.55 percent and health slipped 0.09 percent with tobacco unchanged. The authority bases the index on a basket of 737 items derived from the 2017-18 Household Income and Expenditure Survey. A Gulf Times report on the data highlighted the mixed monthly and annual trends across consumer categories.
Consumer price inflation in Qatar averaged 1.5 percent in the ten years to 2024, according to Focus Economics data. The International Monetary Fund projected an average rate of 3.9 percent for the full year 2026 amid regional disruptions. Those disruptions included damage to the Ras Laffan gas facility that contributed to a forecasted 5.7 percent contraction in real GDP for the year, a World Bank assessment found.
Subsequent data showed the annual inflation rate easing to 2.2 percent in May from 2.62 percent in April. Trading Economics reported that slower gains in several categories offset faster food price rises in the latest reading. The authority continues to track these shifts as Qatar manages economic pressures from its hydrocarbon-dependent economy.
