Consumer Price Index for October 2008

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI for October 2008 rose by 8.82% year-on-year to 126.76, of which the price indices of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Health; and Clothing & Footwear soared by 17.72%, 14.00% and 7.41% respectively. Among the subgroups of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages, notable increase was observed in the prices of rice (+65.54%), fresh beef (+56.56%), canned meat (+47.92%), fresh fish (+30.10%), vegetables (+27.38%) and fresh pork (+25.74%). For the subgroups of Health and Clothing & Footwear, charges for medical consultation service and women’s clothings rose significantly by 24.75% and 8.84% respectively. Meanwhile, the price index of Recreation and Culture recorded a year-on-year increase of 7.24% due to rising charges for outbound package tours. In spite of dearer prices of LP Gas (+24.14%), higher rentals for housing (+15.12%) and charges for maintenance & repair services of dwelling (+14.33%), the electricity subsidy provided by the Government slowed down the year-on-year increment of the index of Housing & Fuels to 6.44%. On the contrary, lower prices of mobile phones and mobile service charges caused the price index of Communication to decrease by 6.87%. The CPI-A and CPI-B for October 2008 were 129.53 and 126.04 respectively, up by 9.71% and 8.52% year-on-year. The Composite CPI for October 2008 increased by 0.35% month-to-month, with the price indices of Clothing & Footwear; Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages; and Housing & Fuels increasing by 1.61%, 1.27% and 0.49% respectively, on account of dearer prices for new arrivals of Autumn/Winter clothing, rising prices of fish and vegetables, as well as higher rentals for housing. On the other hand, continuous decrease of gasoline prices drove down the price index of Transport by 3.94%. Moreover, the CPI-A and CPI-B increased by 0.53% and 0.29% respectively month-to-month. The average Composite CPI for January to October 2008 went up by 8.98% over the same period of 2007. For the 12 months ended October 2008, the Composite CPI rose by 8.65% over the preceding period. The Composite CPI reflects the impacts of price changes on the general population. The CPI-A relates to about 49% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP3,000 to MOP9,999. The CPI-B relates to about 31% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP10,000 to MOP19,999.