Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the Composite CPI for April 2021 (102.47) went down by 0.64% year-on-year, which was 0.33 percentage points lower than the decrease in March (-0.97%).
The drop in the Composite CPI in April was attributed to lower charges for package tours and telecommunication services, as well as falling prices of clothing, footwear, pork and vegetables; however, increased airfares and higher charges for electricity, eating out and outpatient services, coupled with rising wages of domestic helpers, partially offset the decrease. Among the various sections of goods and services, price indices of Recreation & Culture and Communication declined by 9.87% and 7.70% year-on-year respectively, whereas the indices of Health and Household Furnishings & Services grew by 2.24% and 2.15%. The CPI-A (102.57) and CPI-B (102.33) saw respective decreases of 0.67% and 0.61% year-on-year.
The Composite CPI for April rose by 0.18% month-to-month. Higher hotel room rates as well as dearer charges for electricity and eating out drove up the price indices of Recreation & Culture, Housing & Fuels and Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages by 0.54%, 0.25% and 0.23% respectively. Despite rising prices of summer clothing, price index of Clothing & Footwear dipped by 0.28% owing to lower prices of adults’ footwear. The CPI-A and CPI-B increased by 0.18% and 0.17% respectively month-to-month.
For the 12 months ended April 2021, the average Composite CPI decreased by 0.32% from the previous period (May 2019 to April 2020), with notable drop in the price indices of Communication (-10.33%) and Recreation & Culture (-8.39%). The average CPI-A and CPI-B went down by 0.25% and 0.44% respectively over the previous period.
The average Composite CPI, CPI-A and CPI-B for the first four months of 2021 fell by 0.94% 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.