Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI (103.68) for April 2010 increased by 2.56% year-on-year, attributable to the price increases of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Transport. Price indices of Transport; Miscellaneous Goods & Services; Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Clothing & Footwear rose by 9.11%, 5.26%, 5.04% and 4.83% respectively, on account of dearer prices of gasoline, seafood and vegetables, rising gold prices, higher charges for meals bought away from home and new arrival of Spring clothing. On the contrary, apart from the 9.81% decrease of the price index of Education, reduced charges for mobile phone services drove the price index of Communication down by 3.39%. Moreover, in spite of lower rentals for housing, the decrease was partially tapered off by the rising prices of LPG, bringing the price index of Housing & Fuels down slightly by 0.24%. The CPI-A (103.36) and CPI-B (103.81) for April 2010 increased by 2.05% and 2.73% year-on-year respectively. The Composite CPI for April 2010 increased by 0.65% month-to-month, of which the price indices of Clothing & Footwear; Transport and Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages rose by 4.26%, 0.83% and 0.62% respectively, attributable to new arrival of Spring clothing, dearer prices of gasoline and seafood, as well as higher charges for meals bought away from home. However, price index of Communication fell slightly by 0.03% on account of lower prices of mobile phones. The average Composite CPI for the first four months of 2010 increased by 1.78% year-on-year. For the 12 months ended April 2010, the average Composite CPI rose by 0.75% over the preceding period. The 2008/2009-based Composite CPI reflects the impact of price changes on the general population. The 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.
