Consumer Price Index for July 2008

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI for July 2008 rose by 9.22% year-on-year to 125.77, of which the price indices of Food & non-alcoholic beverages, Health and Transport soared by 19.97%, 14.56% and 12.70% respectively. Among the subgroups of Food & non-alcoholic beverages, notable increase was observed in the prices of canned meat (+77.22%), rice (+67.30%), fresh beef (+61.35%), edible oil (+53.73%), fresh water fish (+46.07%), fresh pork (+36.81%), vegetables (+41.79%) and chilled or frozen pork (+40.47%). For the subgroups of Health and Transport, charges for medical consultation service (+25.53%) and prices of unleaded gasoline (+29.69%) registered marked increase. Although substantial increase was recorded in the price indices of LP Gas (+26.47%), charges for maintenance & repair services of dwelling (+20.65%) and rentals for housing (+14.36%), the electricity subsidy provided by the Government slowed down the year-on-year increment of the index of Housing & fuels to 6.72%. On the contrary, the price indices of Communication and Education decreased by 6.88% and 5.83% respectively year-on-year due to reduced charges of mobile phone services and higher government subsidies to students studying in schools that did not join the free education network. The CPI-A and CPI-B for July 2008 were 127.91 and 125.13, up by 9.57% and 9.10% respectively year-on-year. The Composite CPI for July 2008 increased by 0.84% month-to-month, with the price indices of Food & non-alcoholic beverages; Recreation & culture; and Transport rising by 1.99%, 0.73% and 0.71% respectively, on account of dearer prices of vegetables caused by continuous rain, higher charges for outbound package tours during Summer Holiday and rising airfares. Meanwhile, the CPI-A and CPI-B increased by 1.07% and 0.78% respectively month-to-month.
The average Composite CPI for January to July went up by 9.03% over the same period of 2007. For the 12 months ended July 2008, the Composite CPI rose by 7.99% over the preceding period. 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.