Macao's inflation hits 7.49 pct in November

MACAO, Dec. 23 (Chinese media) -- Macao's inflation rate as measured by the Composite CPI (Consumer Price Index) for November 2008 reached 7.49 percent, which was 1.33 percentage points lower than the previous month, according to the figures released on Tuesday by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) of the Special Administrative Region (SAR).

The DSEC figures showed that the Composite CPI for November stood at 126.13, of which the price indices of Food and non-alcoholic beverages, Health, and Clothing and footwear went up by 16.25 percent, 13.81 percent and 7.87 percent year-on-year respectively.

Among the subgroups of Food and non-alcoholic beverages, notable increase was observed in the prices of rice (60.18 percent), fresh beef (42.43 percent), canned meat (41.31 percent), vegetables (26.94 percent), fresh pork (24.08 percent) and fresh fish (21.62 percent).

In spite of higher rentals for local housing (13.94 percent) and dearer charges for maintenance and repair services of dwelling (13.41 percent), reduced prices of LP Gas and the electricity subsidy provided by the SAR government slowed down the year-on-year increment of the index of Housing and fuels to 3.89 percent, the DSEC said.

The average Composite CPI for the period of January to November2008 went up by 8.84 percent over the same period of 2007, and for the 12 months ended November 2008, the Composite CPI rose by 8.7 percent over the preceding period, according to the DSEC.