Cost chart: Overall consumer prices in February rose 0.8% over the same month last year, but were down on January's 2% rise.

Overall consumer prices in February rose 0.8% over the same month last year, but were down on January's 2% rise, the Census & Statistics Department says.

The smaller year-on-year rise was mainly due to the waiver of public housing rentals by the Housing Authority and Housing Society. Netting out this factor, year-on-year growth was 3.1%.

The larger increase on January was mainly attributable to increases in the charges for package tours and food during the Lunar New Year holidays, which occurred in February this year but January last year.

Year-on-year increases in prices were recorded in February for clothing and footwear (up 7.8%), food (excluding meals bought away from home) (5.3%), miscellaneous services (4.4%), miscellaneous goods (3%) and meals bought away from home (2.1%).

However, durable goods prices fell 5.6%. Falls were also recorded for alcohol and tobacco (-4.1%), housing (-2.8%) and electricity, gas and water (-1.1%) and transport (-0.2%).

The Census & Statistics Department said the waiving of public housing rentals had pushed down the index by 2.3 percentage points, far outweighing the lifting effect stemming from the difference in timing of the Lunar New Year in 2006 and 2007.

Discounting the influences of these two special factors, the Composite CPI rose 2.5% year-on-year in the first two months of this year, compared with 2.3% in December.