August Car Prices Fell as Fuel and Repairs Kept Transport Inflation High
Georgia's August CPI put transport prices 15.2% above a year earlier, but the detailed items show a sharp split: car acquisition prices fell while fuel, repair, and washing costs rose.
Detailed car-related CPI items, August 2026
Item-level percentage changes; annual and monthly comparisons are shown separately and are not group contributions.
Transport inflation reached 15.2%
The National Statistics Office of Georgia reported 5.6% annual inflation in August 2026 and 0.4% monthly inflation. Transport was the largest annual contributor: the group rose 15.2% year on year and added 1.81 percentage points to annual inflation. In the month, transport rose 2.2% and added 0.27 percentage points to the total.
The detailed car-related items show where households faced higher and lower prices:
- New motor car — Year on year: −6.4%; Month on month: −0.5%
- Used motor car — Year on year: −2.4%; Month on month: +0.0%
- Motor car tire — Year on year: +4.5%; Month on month: +1.1%
- Motor car accumulator — Year on year: +5.9%; Month on month: +0.6%
- Car spare parts — Year on year: +9.3%; Month on month: +0.6%
- Gasoline — Year on year: +29.6%; Month on month: +0.4%
- Diesel fuel — Year on year: +48.7%; Month on month: −1.1%
- Gas fuel — Year on year: +0.4%; Month on month: 0.0%
- Car repair — Year on year: +22.3%; Month on month: 0.0%
- Motor car oil and filter replacement — Year on year: +4.7%; Month on month: +0.2%
- Car-wash fee — Year on year: +20.8%; Month on month: 0.0%
Transport inflation reached 15.2%
The National Statistics Office of Georgia reported 5.6% annual inflation in August 2026 and 0.4% monthly inflation. Transport was the largest annual contributor: the group rose 15.2% year on year and added 1.81 percentage points to annual inflation. In the month, transport rose 2.2% and added 0.27 percentage points to the total.
The detailed car-related items show where households faced higher and lower prices:
- New motor car — Year on year: −6.4%; Month on month: −0.5%
- Used motor car — Year on year: −2.4%; Month on month: +0.0%
- Motor car tire — Year on year: +4.5%; Month on month: +1.1%
- Motor car accumulator — Year on year: +5.9%; Month on month: +0.6%
- Car spare parts — Year on year: +9.3%; Month on month: +0.6%
- Gasoline — Year on year: +29.6%; Month on month: +0.4%
- Diesel fuel — Year on year: +48.7%; Month on month: −1.1%
- Gas fuel — Year on year: +0.4%; Month on month: 0.0%
- Car repair — Year on year: +22.3%; Month on month: 0.0%
- Motor car oil and filter replacement — Year on year: +4.7%; Month on month: +0.2%
- Car-wash fee — Year on year: +20.8%; Month on month: 0.0%
Detailed car-related CPI items, August 2026
Item-level percentage changes; annual and monthly comparisons are shown separately and are not group contributions.
Acquisition versus operation
New and used motor cars are acquisition items; fuel, parts, repair, oil/filter, and washing are operating items.
Buying a car became cheaper in the annual comparison
The acquisition lines moved in the opposite direction from most operating items. The new-motor-car index was 6.4% lower than in August 2025. Used motor cars were 2.4% lower. In the monthly comparison, new cars fell 0.5%, while used cars were effectively unchanged at +0.0% after rounding.
That is a price-index result for the official CPI sample, distinct from any particular model's advertised price and from transaction-price series.
The contrast is still clear: the annual acquisition lines were down while the items required to keep a car running were mostly up. Tires, accumulators, and spare parts all recorded annual increases, with spare parts at +9.3%.
Buying a car became cheaper in the annual comparison
The acquisition lines moved in the opposite direction from most operating items. The new-motor-car index was 6.4% lower than in August 2025. Used motor cars were 2.4% lower. In the monthly comparison, new cars fell 0.5%, while used cars were effectively unchanged at +0.0% after rounding.
That is a price-index result for the official CPI sample, distinct from any particular model's advertised price and from transaction-price series.
The contrast is still clear: the annual acquisition lines were down while the items required to keep a car running were mostly up. Tires, accumulators, and spare parts all recorded annual increases, with spare parts at +9.3%.
Acquisition versus operation
New and used motor cars are acquisition items; fuel, parts, repair, oil/filter, and washing are operating items.
Fuel supplied the largest operating shock
Fuel was the strongest annual mover in the detailed table. Diesel rose 48.7% year on year, gasoline 29.6%, and gas fuel 0.4%. Diesel therefore increased by 19.1 percentage points more than gasoline in the annual comparison.
The monthly picture was less uniform. Gasoline rose 0.4%, diesel fell 1.1%, and gas fuel was unchanged. A high annual reading can therefore coexist with a small or negative monthly movement: the two comparisons use different bases.
The wider operation-of-personal-transport group, which includes fuel, repairs and related running items, rose 20.8% year on year and 2.6% month on month.
Repair and washing costs stayed elevated
Car repair was 22.3% higher than a year earlier. The oil-and-filter replacement item rose a more modest 4.7%, while car-wash fees increased 20.8%. Neither repair nor washing moved in August against July after rounding, while oil and filter replacement edged up 0.2%.
Across the annual comparison, acquisition prices were lower, fuel was sharply higher, and several operating services and parts were also more expensive.
What the August split tells a car shopper
A car's purchase price and the cost of running it are moving on different tracks in the official CPI. The annual data show lower acquisition indices alongside higher fuel, repair, spare-part, and washing indices. For the monthly reading, the split remains visible even though diesel eased: gasoline, tires, accumulators, spare parts, and oil-and-filter replacement all rose.
The useful comparison is therefore not “transport inflation” as a single number. It is the distinction between buying the vehicle and operating it after purchase. The former was down year on year in both new and used-car lines; the latter carried most of the pressure in the detailed August reading.
The detailed item percentages are not contributions to total inflation. The official transport group contribution was +1.81 percentage points annually and +0.27 percentage points monthly.
Methodology
Geostat August 2026 Consumer Price Detail Indices and Inflation Rate release.
Eleven COICOP division-7 car-related item rows, plus official transport-group aggregates.
August 2026; annual comparison with August 2025 and monthly comparison with July 2026; released 3 September 2026.