Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI for June 2008 rose by 9.05% year-on-year to 124.72, of which the price indices of Food & non-alcoholic beverages, Health and Transport soared by 18.16%, 14.63% and 12.94% respectively. Among the subgroups of Food & non-alcoholic beverages, notable increase was observed in the prices of canned meat (+83.32%), fresh beef (+75.08%), rice (+69.54%), edible oil (+55.94%), fresh pork (+45.46%), chilled or frozen pork (+41.22%), fresh water fish (+36.01%), noodles (+30.43%), vegetables (+18.66%) and charges for meals bought away from home (+15.35%). For the subgroups of Health and Transport, charges for medical consultation service (+25.65%) and prices of unleaded gasoline (+32.75%) registered marked increase. Despite Government’s pay out of electricity subsidy to all households, the price index of Housing & fuels rose by 7.96%, as a result of the substantial surge in the prices of LP Gas (+26.47%), charges for maintenance & repair services of dwelling (+27.18%) and rentals for housing (+14.87%). On the contrary, the price indices of Communication and Education registered year-on-year decrease of 6.86% and 5.83% respectively, due to reduced charges of mobile phone services and higher government subsidies to students studying in schools that did not join the free education network. The CPI-A and CPI-B for June 2008 were 126.55 and 124.16, up by 9.06% and 8.98% respectively year-on-year. The average Composite CPI for the first half year of 2008 went up by 9.00% over the same period of 2007. For the 12 months ended June 2008, the Composite CPI rose by 7.71% over the preceding period. The Composite CPI for June 2008 increased by 1.11% month-to-month, of which the price indices of Clothing & footwear, Food & non-alcoholic beverages and Transport rose by 2.86%, 1.97% and 1.33% respectively, as a result of higher prices of new arrivals of Summer clothing and footwear, dearer prices of vegetables because of heavy rain and continuous rising of gasoline prices. Meanwhile, the CPI-A and CPI-B increased by 1.23% and 1.08% respectively month-to-month. The Composite CPI for the second quarter of 2008 increased by 8.91% over the same quarter of 2007, with marked increase in the price indices of Food & non-alcoholic beverages (+18.45%), Health (+14.24%) and Transport (+12.03%). 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 MOP 3,000 to MOP 9,999. The CPI-B relates to about 31% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP 10,000 to MOP 19,999.
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