The city’s inflation continues to slow down, hitting the lowest point in five years and seven months – at 3.02 per cent year-on-year for April – the latest data released yesterday by the Statistics and Census Service shows.
Last month, the city’s composite consumer price index (CPI) reached 108.03 compared to 104.86 one year ago. The inflation rate, compared to 3.31 per cent growth in March, was down 0.29 percentage points.
This inflation rate is the lowest since September 2010 – when inflation of 3.83 per cent was registered.
According to DSEC, the year-on-year jump in the city’s overall prices last month were due to higher rentals for parking spaces, increasing fees for eating out as well as rises in the price of motorcars and tobacco.
During the month, tobacco prices surged nearly 65 per cent year-on-year, driving the price index of alcoholic beverages and tobacco up by 37.2 per cent year-on-year, whilst costs for education increased nearly 9 per cent year-on-year in the month, due to higher tuition fees.
In addition, DSEC said higher rentals for parking spaces and the increased price of motorcars caused the price index of transport to register a year-on-year growth of 7.6 per cent in April. However, prices of clothing and footwear, as well as communication costs, posted year-on-year declines of 3.48 per cent and 0.93 per cent, respectively.
Costlier clothing than March
In a month-on-month comparison, the city’s overall prices went up 0.03 per cent compared to March, due to the prices of clothing and footwear jumping 2.18 per cent month-on-month on account of new arrivals of women’s summer clothing and footwear.
Moreover, higher prices of gasoline and motorcars also drove costs of transport up 0.58 per cent compared to that of March, according to the DSEC.
Nevertheless, the price index of housing and fuels dropped 0.47 per cent month-on-month in April driven by lower housing rentals asked by landlords coupled with reduced charges for electricity. In addition, costs for recreation & culture dropped by 0.29 per cent month-on-month due to lower prices for package tours.
For the first four months of the year the average inflation of consumer goods amounted to 3.5 per cent year-on-year, due to a 38.2 per cent rise in the price of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, as well as the 8.9 per cent and nearly 7 per cent hike in the cost of education and transport, respectively.
On the other hand, the average CPI rose 4.09 per cent for the 12 months ended April this year, compared to the previous period. As in the monthly results, increased prices for alcoholic beverages and tobacco as well as that for education were the main factors pushing up prices in the period.
CPI-A, which relates to about 50 per cent of households spending between MOP10,000 (US$1,250) and MOP29,999 monthly, recorded year-on-year growth of 2.95 per cent for April and 3.53 per cent for the first four months of the year.
Meanwhile, CPI-B, which covers about 30 per cent of households spending MOP30,000 to MOP54,999 monthly, posted year-on-year increases of 3.62 per cent for last month and 3.29 per cent for January to April.
