Food prices have soared by up to 400% in December 2020 and Lebanon’s inflation rate has hit 84.9% in 2020, the highest since 2013. Last December, food prices have increased by up to 400% as follows:

Breakdown of December price increases from a year earlier:
– Food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 402.3%
– Alcoholic beverages, tobacco up 392.5%
– Clothing and footwear increased 559.8%
– Restaurants and hotels rose 609%
– Furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance up 655.1%

With Ramadan just a couple of weeks away, The Crisis Observatory at AUB revealed an updated “Fattoush index” showing that the cost to prepare a fattoush salad for a family of five, will now cost LL550,000 in a whole month, which constitutes a staggering 210% increase!

The cost of making fattouch for a small family of five is estimated – at the beginning of the month of Ramadan this year – at around 18,500 Lebanese pounds compared to 6,000 LBP in 2020 and around 4,500 LBP in 2019.