Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI for September 2008 rose by 9.07% year-on-year to 126.32, of which the price indices of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Health and Clothing & Footwear soared by 16.44%, 14.27% and 9.11% respectively. Among the subgroups of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages, notable increase was observed in the prices of rice (+66.09%), fresh beef (+56.58%), canned meat (+55.65%), edible oil (+54.37%), fresh water fish (+35.82%), noodles (+33.79%), chilled or frozen pork (+27.50%), fresh pork (+25.82%) and meals bought away from home (+13.71%). For the subgroups of Health and Clothing & Footwear, charges for medical consultation service (+25.25%), clothing materials (+32.60%) and garments for women (+13.65%) registered marked increase. Meanwhile, the price index of Recreation and Culture recorded an increase of 8.33% owing to dearer charges for outbound package tours. Despite higher charges of taxi service starting from September, the index of Transport registered a slow down in year-on-year growth from +8.88% in August to +7.59%, on account of the exemption of consumption tax on automotive fuels and lubricants, as well as lower gasoline prices following the price drop of petroleum in international market. On the contrary, due to lower prices of mobile phones, the price index of Communication registered year-on-year decrease of 6.87%. The CPI-A and CPI-B for September 2008 were 128.85 and 125.68 respectively, up by 9.56% and 8.89% year-on-year. The average Composite CPI for January to September went up by 9.00% over the same period of 2008. For the 12 months ended September 2008, the Composite CPI rose by 8.43% over the preceding period. The Composite CPI September 2008 increased by 0.42% month-to-month, of which the price indices of Education, Miscellaneous Goods & Services and Housing & Fuels rose by 2.91%, 2.29% and 0.99% respectively, due to higher charges of tuition fees, school sundry fees, nursery and tutorial class in the new academic year, as well as rising rentals for housing. On the other hand, with the seasonal sale of women’s clothing, the price index of Clothing & Footwear recorded a decrease of 1.64%. In spite of the increase in charges of taxi service, the index of Transport recorded a drop of 1.28% owing to lower prices of gasoline as well as air ticket after the Summer holidays. Moreover, the CPI-A and CPI-B increased by 0.70% and 0.46% respectively month-to-month. The Composite CPI for the third quarter of 2008 rose by 9.00% to 125.96 over the same quarter of 2007, with marked increase in the price indices of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages (+18.24%), Health (+14.39%) and Transport (+9.73%). 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 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.
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