Macao's inflation rate, as measured by the Composite CPI (consumer price index), decreased by 0.63 percent month-to-month to 1.82 percent in May, according to the figures released on Monday by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

The DSEC figures indicated that the composite CPI for May 2009 stood at 125.6, of which the price indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, clothing and footwear and food and non-alcoholic beverages went up by 14.26 percent, 11.51 percent and 6.55 percent respectively.

Among the subgroups of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, price index of cigarettes soared by 19.39 percent following the increase of excise duty on tobacco.

As regards to clothing and footwear, price indices of women's clothing and women's footwear registered marked increase of 9.43 percent and 17.98 percent respectively. For the subgroups of food and non-alcoholic beverages, the price indices of fresh fish and fruit also rose by 28.75 percent and 15.72 percent respectively.

The average composite CPI for the first five months of 2009 went up by 2.83 percent year-on-year, while, for the 12 months that ended May 2009, increment of the average composite CPI tapered to rise by 5.98 percent from the preceding period, the DSEC said.

Source: Xinhua