Larger surge: January saw a faster year-on-year consumer price surge due to increases in prices around the Lunar New Year holiday.

January saw a faster year-on-year consumer price surge, with overall consumer prices up 2.6% over a year earlier, larger than December's 1.8% growth, the Census & Statistics Department says.

The larger year-on-year surge was mainly attributable to increases in the charges for package tours, prices of basic foodstuffs and inbound and outbound transport fares around the Lunar New Year holiday, which fell in January this year but in February last year. Also contributing were the larger increases in private housing rentals and the price of jewellery.

Discounting the Lunar New Year effect, the rise in consumer prices in January would have been much more moderate. As the economy has been expanding briskly, there will continue to be upward pressures on domestic prices. Yet with the expansion in production capacity brought about by rising productivity and with the strengthening of the US dollar over the past year, such upward pressures will be mitigated to some extent.

In January, year-on-year increases were recorded for miscellaneous goods (up 5.7%), housing (3.7%), food (excluding meals bought away from home) (3.4%), miscellaneous services (3.3%), electricity, gas and water (3.2%), transport (2.7%) and meals bought away from home (1.4%).

Clothing, footwear prices dip

On the other hand, prices of clothing and footwear recorded a 2.4% year-on-year decline. This was followed by durable goods, down 1.7%, and alcohol and tobacco, down 0.3%.

For the quarter ending January, the average monthly rate of increase in the seasonally adjusted composite consumer price index was 0.2%, same as that for the quarter ending December.

For the quarter ending January, the composite consumer price index rose 2% over a year earlier. For the 12 months ending January, the composite consumer price index was on average 1.4% higher than in the preceding 12-month period.