Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI for May 2008 rose by 8.95% year-on-year to 123.35, of which the price indices of Food & non-alcoholic beverages, Health and Transport soared by 18.60%, 14.20% and 12.15% respectively.

Among the subgroups of Food & non-alcoholic beverages, notable increase was observed in the prices of canned meat (+80.60%), fresh beef (+69.00%), rice (+67.53%), fresh pork (+58.80%), edible oil (+57.67%), chilled or frozen pork (+46.10%), fresh water fish (+35.78%), noodles (+27.11%), chilled or frozen poultry (+24.14%) and charges for meals bought away from home (+14.58%). For the subgroups of Health and Transport, charges for medical consultation service (+25.79%) and price of unleaded gasoline (+29.53%) registered marked increase. For the subgroups in Housing & fuels, prices of LP Gas (+26.49%), charges for maintenance & repair services of dwelling (+27.26%) and rentals for housing (+14.17%) rose sharply, yet the Government’s payout of the electricity subsidy to all households slowed down the increment of the index of Housing & fuels to 7.45%.

On the contrary, the price indices of Communication and Education registered year-on-year decrease of 6.87% and 5.83% respectively, due to lower charges of mobile phone service and higher government subsidies to students studying in schools that did not join the free education network.

The CPI-A and CPI-B for May 2008 were 125.02 and 122.84, up by 9.03% and 8.83% respectively year-on-year.

The Composite CPI for May 2008 increased by 0.79% month-to-month, of which the price indices of Clothing & footwear, Transport and Housing & fuels rose by 2.68%, 2.03% and 1.35% respectively, as a result of new arrivals of Summer clothing, dearer prices of gasoline and higher rentals for housing. Meanwhile, the CPI-A and CPI-B increased by 0.69% and 0.84% respectively month-to-month.

The average Composite CPI for January to May went up by 8.99% over the same period of 2007. For the 12 months ended May 2008, the Composite CPI rose by 7.40% over the preceding period.

The Composite CPI reflects the impacts of price changes on the general population. The CPI-A relates to about 49% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP 3,000 to MOP 9,999. The CPI-B relates to about 31% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP 10,000 to MOP 19,999.