Consumer prices growing faster in August

The Composite Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key measure of inflation in the territory, increased 2.83% year-on-year to 116.41 in August, according to the latest information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
DSEC attributed the rise, akin to a 0.23 percentage point increase from July’s 2.6% growth, to higher charges for eating out, rising rentals for dwellings and dearer prices for certain goods, notably motor cars, gasoline, gold jewelry and fresh pork.
Among the various goods and services, the price indexes of the education and transport categories grew faster than the monthly aggregate rate, growing 5.83% and 5.06% respectively year-on-year. Meanwhile, the index for communication dropped 2.53% year-on-year in August, and the index for alcoholic beverages and tobacco edged down 0.91%.
The average Composite CPI for the first eight months of 2019 went up by 2.77% year-on-year, according to DSEC. For the 12 months ending in August, the average Composite CPI rose by 2.92% from the previous period, with notable growth in the price indexes of the education and transport sector.
The Composite CPI is an indicator of inflation, reflecting the impact of price changes on average households in Macau. DB