Macao's composite consumer price index (CPI) in April increased by 2.05 percent year-on-year, a slowdown of 0.42 percentage points from the growth in March, the special administrative region's statistic department said here Monday.
The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the increment was attributable to higher prices of fresh pork, dearer charges for eating out and rising rentals for dwellings.
The price indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, and education rose by 5.31 percent and 5.14 percent respectively year-on-year, whereas the indices of communication, clothing and footwear fell by 8.93 percent and 4.41 percent.
The DSEC report added that the composite CPI in April decreased by 0.16 percent month-to-month. Receding prices of gasoline, electricity and liquefied petroleum gas drove down the price indices of transport, and housing and fuels by 1.60 percent and 0.22 percent respectively.
On the other hand, price index of health grew by 0.37 percent on account of rising charges for outpatient services. Despite dearer prices of fresh pork, price index of food and non-alcoholic beverages edged up by a mere 0.01 percent owing to reduced prices of fruits and restaurant discounts.
For the 12 months ended April 2020, the average composite CPI rose by 2.62 percent from the previous period, with notable growth in the price indices of education (5.39 percent), food and non-alcoholic beverages (4.68 percent) and transport (4.16 percent).
The average composite CPI for the first four months of 2020 grew by 2.46 percent year-on-year.
