Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI (102.28) for December 2009 increased by 0.78% year-on-year. Price indices of Clothing & Footwear; Transport; Miscellaneous Goods & Services; and Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages rose by 12.64%, 6.89%, 4.81%, and 4.09% respectively, attributable to dearer prices of Autumn/Winter clothing, gasoline, gold jewellery, fresh fish and vegetables. On the contrary, apart from the 18.95% decrease of the price index of Education, lower rentals for housing and reduced charges for mobile phone services drove the price indices of Housing & Fuels; and Communication down by 2.47% and 2.01% respectively. The CPI-A (101.79) for December 2009 decreased by 0.24% year-on-year, while the CPI-B (102.34) increased by 1.0%. The Composite CPI for December 2009 increased by 0.61% month-to-month, of which the price indices of Clothing & Footwear; and Recreation & Culture rose by 4.88% and 2.41% respectively on account of dearer prices of new arrivals of Autumn/Winter clothing and higher charges for outbound package tours in the Christmas holidays. However, price index of Housing & Fuels decreased slightly by 0.14% due to lower rentals for housing. Meanwhile, the CPI-A and CPI-B rose by 0.43% and 0.66% month-to-month. The Composite CPI for the fourth quarter of 2009 fell by 0.14% over the same quarter of 2008, with decrease in the price indices of Education (-18.95%), Housing & Fuels (-2.77%), and Communication (-2.0%) but increase in the indices of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (+13.79%) and Clothing & Footwear (+9.02%). The average Composite CPI for the whole year of 2009 was 101.48 and the annual inflation rate was 1.18%. Price indices of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco; Clothing & Footwear; and Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages increased by 9.80%, 9.50% and 5.53% respectively, while the indices of Education; Transport; and Communication decreased by 10.53%, 5.79% and 1.74%. The CPI-A and CPI-B for 2009 rose up by 0.80% and 1.25% over 2008. The Composite CPI reflects the impact of price changes on the general population. The 2008/2009 based CPI-A relates to about 50% of the households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP6,000 to MOP18,999. The CPI-B relates to about 30% of the households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP19,000 to MOP34,999.
