Overall consumer prices fell 2.4% in November compared with the same month last year, narrowing further on October's 2.7% fall.

The smaller year-on-year decline in the Consumer Price Index in November was mainly attributable to renewed increases in the prices of clothing and footwear, particularly those of children and men's outer clothing, and to a lesser extent in the charges for package tours.

Also relevant was an enlarged rise in jewellery prices and a moderated fall in charges for meals away from home.

Noting the year-on-year decline in overall consumer prices narrowed further in November, the Government said this occurred as some local retailers reduced price discounts and other concessions on their goods and services, and as some others adjusted the respective prices modestly upward, amidst the pick-up in local consumer spending and surge in inbound tourism in recent months.

Higher import prices caused by the weakening in the US dollar should have also contributed.

Analysed by sub-index and on a year-on-year comparison, the CPI(A), CPI(B) and CPI(C) fell 1.8%, 2.5% and 2.8% respectively in November, also narrowing on the corresponding falls of 2%, 2.7% and 3.3% in October.

Meanwhile, the Government's waiver of water and sewage charges for the August-November quarter continued. The measure was estimated to have dampened the Composite CPI, CPI(A), CPI(B) and CPI(C) by 0.3, 0.4, 0.2 and 0.1 of a percentage point respectively in November. A similar effect was observed in October.

Amongst the various CPI components, housing continued to register the largest year-on-year decline in prices in November (-5.6% in the Composite CPI and -3.1% in the CPI(A)).

This was followed by durable goods (-5.4% in the Composite CPI and -4.9% in the CPI(A)), miscellaneous services (-3.3% in the Composite CPI and -4.0% in the CPI(A)), food (excluding meals bought away from home) (-1.7% in the Composite CPI and -1.9% in the CPI(A)), meals bought away from home (-1.1% in the Composite CPI and -0.8% in the CPI(A)), and alcoholic drinks and tobacco (-0.5% in the Composite CPI and -0.4% in the CPI(A)).

On the other hand, year-on-year increases were recorded for miscellaneous goods (3.8% in the Composite CPI and 2.1% in the CPI(A)), clothing and footwear (1.9% in the Composite CPI and 0.9% in the CPI(A)), and electricity, gas and water (1.3% in the Composite CPI and 1.4% in the CPI(A)).

For transport, the costs remained unchanged in the Composite CPI but fell 1% in the CPI(A).

Taking the first 11 months of 2003 together, the Composite CPI fell 2.6% over a year earlier. The CPI(A), CPI(B) and CPI(C) were down by 2.2%, 2.8% and 2.9% respectively.