DOHA: Qatari consumer prices fell in August, the eighth consecutive decline this year, on lower housing costs. Consumer prices fell an annual 2.1 percent, the Qatar Statistics Authority said on Sunday on its website. Rents declined 14.3 percent, the statistics authority said. Prices are falling in Qatar, even as inflation picks up in neighboring Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's largest economy. A weaker euro may decrease inflationary pressures in the Gulf region, Nomura Holdings Inc said June 10. Qatar cut its overnight deposit rate by half a percentage point to 1.5 percent on Aug. 11, a move prompted by deflation and low global borrowing costs, the central bank said. Qatar, which had an inflation rate as high as 15 percent in 2008, predicts prices will rise 1 percent this year.
