Overall consumer prices in China's southern special administrative region (SAR) of Hong Kong rose 3.4 percent year on year in November, slightly higher than October's rise of 3.2 percent, the SAR government said Thursday.
The larger increase was mainly attributed to enlarged rises in costs for town gas, private housing rentals, meals brought away from home as well as package tours, a spokesman for the Census and Statistics Department of the SAR government said.
The spokesman said the inflation forecast for 2007 remained unchanged at 2 percent, adding that the slightly higher increase in November had been taken into account in the inflation forecast, which was announced in Mid-November.
Looking ahead, sustained economic expansion, high food and oil prices, the weak U.S. dollar and the appreciation of yuan would continue to exert pressures, he added.
"Lately, the pick-up in private housing rentals also deserved attention. Yet the sustained increase in labor productivity should help mitigate the pressures to some extent," he added.
For the 3-month period ending November, average monthly rises in the seasonally adjusted composite CPI were 0.7 percent, compared to 0.6 percent for the three months ending October.
Among the various CPI components, large increase was recorded for food excluding meals bought away from home, with price for beef up 35.2 percent, canned meat up 31.1 percent and eggs up 30.7 percent.
Housing prices rose 4.2 percent year on year, while prices for miscellaneous goods went up 3.6 percent and meals brought away from home up 3.6 percent.
Prices for electricity, gas and water, clothing and footwear, transport were up 3.4 percent, 1.4 percent and 0.5 percent respectively.
On the other hand, declines were recorded in prices for durable goods, which went down by 3.9 percent in the composite index.
Prices for miscellaneous services also rose 0.8 percent.
Taking the first 11 months as a whole, the composite CPI went up 1.9 percent over a year earlier, the spokesman said, adding that composite CPI for the three months ending November was up 2.8 percent.
For the 12 months ending November, the composite CPI was on average 1.9 percent higher than in the preceding 12-month period.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article