MACAO, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Macao's inflation rate, as measured by the Composite Consumer Price Index (CPI), eased to 8.82 percent in October from 9.07 percent of the previous month this year, according to the figures released on Friday by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
Macao's inflation rate for October 2007 was 6.18 percent.
The DSEC figures showed that the Composite CPI for October 2008 stood at 126.76, of which the price indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages; health; clothing and footwear soared by 17.72 percent, 14 percent and 7.41 percent year-on-year respectively.
Among the subgroups of Food and non-alcoholic beverages, notable increase was observed in the prices of rice (65.54 percent), fresh beef (56.56 percent), canned meat (47.92 percent), fresh fish (30.10 percent), vegetables (27.38 percent) and fresh pork (25.74 percent).
Meanwhile, the price index of Recreation and culture recorded a year-on-year increase of 7.24 percent due to rising charges for outbound package tours. In spite of dearer prices of LP Gas, higher rentals for housing and charges for maintenance and repair services of dwelling, the electricity subsidy provided by the Macao Special Administration Region (SAR) government slowed down the year-on-year increment of the index of housing and fuels to 6.44 percent.
According to the DSEC, the average Composite CPI for January to October 2008 went up by 8.98 percent over the same period of 2007. For the 12 months ended October 2008, the Composite CPI rose by 8.65 percent over the preceding period.
