Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI for November 2008 rose by 7.49% year-on-year to 126.13, of which the price indices of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Health; and Clothing & Footwear went up by 16.25%, 13.81% and 7.87% respectively.

Among the subgroups of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages, notable increase was observed in the prices of rice (+60.18%), fresh beef (+42.43%), canned meat (+41.31%), vegetables (+26.94%), fresh pork (+24.08%) and fresh fish (+21.62%). For the subgroups of Health; and Clothing & Footwear, charges for medical consultation service and women’s clothings rose by 24.40% and 9.81% respectively.

Meanwhile, the price index of Recreation & Culture recorded a year-on-year increase of 7.37% due to rising charges for outbound package tours. Dearer prices of personal care products, higher charges for private tutorial centre, and that of hairdressing & grooming services drove the price index of Miscellaneous Goods & Services up by 6.04%. In spite of higher rentals for housing (+13.94%) and dearer charges for maintenance & repair services of dwelling (+13.41%), reduced prices of LP Gas (-4.65%) and the electricity subsidy provided by the Government slowed down the year-on-year increment of the index of Housing & Fuels to 3.89%.

On the contrary, the indices of Communication and Transport dropped by 4.98% and 2.66% respectively due to lower prices of mobile phones, reduced charges for mobile phone services, as well as falling gasoline prices.

The CPI-A and CPI-B for November 2008 were 128.60 and 125.46 respectively, up by 8.21% and 7.21% year-on-year.

The Composite CPI for November 2008 dropped by 0.50% month-to-month, with the price indices of Transport; Housing & Fuels; and Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages going down by 2.59%, 1.03% and 0.63% respectively, on account of decreasing prices of gasoline and LP Gas, lower prices of fresh fish and vegetables. On the other hand, rising prices of winter clothing and footwear pushed up the price index of Clothing & Footwear by 2.32%. Moreover, the CPI-A and CPI-B declined by 0.72% and 0.46% respectively month-to-month.

The average Composite CPI for January to November 2008 went up by 8.84% over the same period of 2007. For the 12 months ended November 2008, the Composite CPI rose by 8.70% over the preceding period.

The Composite CPI reflects the impact 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.