Consumer Price Index for July 2009

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the increase of the Composite CPI continued to slowdown in July 2009, rising slightly by 0.19% year-on-year to 126.02. The price indices of Clothing & Footwear; Miscellaneous Goods & Services; and Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages went up by 6.67%, 5.17% and 3.22% respectively; meanwhile, year-on-year rise of the price index of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (+13.86%) was attributable to dearer cigarettes prices after the substantial increase of excise on tobacco. Among the subgroups of Clothing & Footwear and Miscellaneous Goods & Services, price indices of children and infant clothing (+11.29%), men’s clothing (+7.70%) and travel goods (+18.07%) registered marked rise. Among those of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages, notable increase was also observed in the price indices of fresh fish (+18.85%) and fruit (+8.17%). On the contrary, price index of Transport registered a year-on-year decrease of 10.70% on account of falling prices of gasoline. The CPI-A for July 2009 fell by 0.13% year-on-year to 127.74 whereas the CPI-B rose by 0.28% to 125.47. The Composite CPI for July 2009 decreased by 0.07% month-to-month on account of the seasonal sales of clothing that drove down the price index of Clothing & Footwear by 3.55%; however, the decline was partially offset by the rising indices of Miscellaneous Goods & Services (+0.42%) and Recreation & Culture (+0.41%). Meanwhile, the CPI-A and CPI-B fell simultaneously by 0.10% month-to-month. The average Composite CPI for the first seven months of 2009 went up by 2.20% year-on-year. For the 12 months ended July 2009, the average Composite CPI rose by 4.56% from the preceding period. The Composite CPI reflects the impact 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.