Kuwait's annual inflation edged up to a five-month top of 5.4 percent in May, the highest level among Gulf Arab oil producers, and living costs in nearby Qatar rose slightly to match March's reading, data showed on Sunday.
Inflation in the Gulf, the world's top oil exporting region, was expected to creep higher this year on robust global commodity prices, a weak dollar and increased government spending following unrest in the Arab world.
However, slow lending growth and ongoing weakness in the property sector in some of the countries are seen keeping consumer price growth well below record, double-digit peaks seen in most Gulf states in 2008, despite oil prices staying above $90 per barrel now.
In Kuwait, the world's No. 4 oil exporter, inflation has been hovering above 5 percent since the beginning of this year. It stood at 5.3 percent in April, after climbing to a nearly two-year peak of 6 percent in December.
On the month, consumer prices in the OPEC member, which saw limited protests over the past few months, grew 0.3 percent in May, up from a 0.2 percent rise in the previous month, as food costs rose sharply for the third month in a row, statistics office's data cited by the state news agency KUNA showed.
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