2011-03-21 17:42

MACAO - Macao's inflation hike continued as the Composite Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February this year went up by 4.7 percent over the same period of last year, according to the figures released Monday by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

It was the second consecutive month that Macao's CPI rose over 4.5 percent year-on-year. The CPI for January this year went up by 4.92 percent over the same period of last year.

The inflation of last month was mainly caused by the price increase in Food and non-alcoholic beverages, Housing and fuels and Transport, the DSEC said.

Analyzed by section of goods and services, clothing and footwear, transport, health, food and non-alcoholic beverages, and miscellaneous goods and services recorded notable year-on-year increase of more than 5 percent during the period.

Meanwhile, reduced charges for mobile phone services caused the price index of Communication to fall by 8.29 percent year-on-year.

The average Composite CPI for the first two months of 2011 increased by 4.81 percent year-on-year. For the 12 months ending in February 2011, the average Composite CPI rose by 3.39 percent from the preceding period.