Clothing & footwear prices up in Feb Composite CPI

22 Mar '07

3 min read

The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures for February 2007. According to the Composite CPI, overall consumer prices rose by 0.8% in February 2007 over a year earlier, smaller than the 2.0% increase in January.

The smaller year-on-year increase in the Composite CPI in February 2007 than in January was attributable to the waiver of public housing rentals by the Housing Authority and Housing Society for the month of February 2007. Netting out this factor, the year-on-year increase in the Composite CPI was 3.1%.

Analysed by sub-index, the year-on-year rates of change in the CPI(A), CPI(B) and CPI(C) were -3.2%, +2.1% and +3.6% respectively in February 2007, which compared to +1.8%, +1.9% and +2.3% respectively in January. Netting out the effect of public housing rental waiver in February 2007, the year-on-year rates of change in the CPI(A), CPI(B) and CPI(C) were +2.6%, +3.2% and +3.6% respectively. There was no effect on the CPI(C) as public housing rental is not a constituent of this sub-index.

For discerning the latest trend in consumer prices, it is also useful to look at the changes in the seasonally adjusted CPIs. For the 3-month period ended February 2007, the average monthly rates of change in the seasonally adjusted Composite CPI, CPI(A), CPI(B) and CPI(C) were -0.5%, -1.6%, -0.1% and +0.3% respectively. The corresponding rates of change for the 3-month period ended January 2007 were +0.3%, +0.2%, +0.3% and +0.3%.

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