Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the Composite CPI (102.94) for December 2019 increased by 2.56% year-on-year, down further by 0.14 percentage points from the 2.70% growth in November 2019. The inflation rate for 2019 was 2.75%, a slowdown from 3.01% in 2018.
The year-on-year growth in December 2019 was attributable to rising prices of fresh pork, dearer charges for eating out, higher rentals for dwellings and increasing gasoline prices. Among the various sections of goods and services, price indices of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Education and Transport surged by 5.31%, 5.13% and 4.90% respectively year-on-year, whereas the index of Clothing & Footwear dropped markedly by 5.41%. The CPI-A (102.99) and CPI-B (102.86) saw respective increases of 2.54% and 2.98% year-on-year.
The Composite CPI for December 2019 rose by 0.20% month-to-month. New arrival of winter clothing and higher charges for package tours pushed up the price indices of Clothing & Footwear and Recreation & Culture by 1.44% and 1.16% respectively. Price index of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages edged up by 0.02% owing to higher charges for eating out and dearer prices of vegetables, fruits, fresh fish and seafood; meanwhile, lower prices of fresh pork offset part of the increase. The CPI-A and CPI-B grew by 0.19% and 0.21% respectively month-to-month.
The average Composite CPI for the fourth quarter of 2019 (102.78) increased by 2.71% year-on-year, with the average CPI-A (102.82) and CPI-B (102.72) rising by 2.66% and 3.34% respectively.
For the whole year of 2019, the average Composite CPI grew by 2.75% year-on-year to 101.78. The increment was driven by higher rentals for dwellings, dearer charges for eating out, as well as increasing prices of fresh pork and gasoline. Analysed by section, price indices of Education (+5.65%), Transport (+4.86%), Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages (+3.82%) and Health (+3.50%) showed notable growth, while indices of Communication and Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco dropped by 1.66% and 0.45% respectively. The average CPI-A (101.79) and CPI-B (101.77) for 2019 went up by 2.69% and 3.34% respectively year-on-year.
The Composite CPI reflects the impact of price changes on the general households in Macao. The CPI-A relates to about 50% of the households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP12,000 to MOP35,999. The CPI-B relates to about 30% of the households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP36,000 to MOP62,999.