Consumer Price Indices for August 2020
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September 21, 2020 - The Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government released today the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures for August 2020. According to the Composite CPI, overall consumer prices fell by 0.4% in August 2020 over the same month a year earlier. The decrease was smaller than the corresponding decrease (-2.3%) in July 2020, as effect of the Government's payment of public housing rentals and waiver of two-thirds of rent for tenants of Group B estates by Hong Kong Housing Society in July dissipated in August.
Netting out the effects of all Government’s one-off relief measures, the year-on-year rate of increase in the Composite CPI (i.e. the underlying inflation rate) in August 2020 was 0.1%, slightly smaller than that in July 2020 (0.2%). The smaller increase in August was mainly due to the smaller increases in the prices of pork and private housing rentals.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the average monthly rate of decrease in the Composite CPI for the three-month period ending August 2020 was 0.2%, and that for the three-month period ending July 2020 was 1.0%. Netting out the effects of all Government’s one-off relief measures, the corresponding rates of decrease were 0.2% and 0.3%.
A Government spokesman said that the underlying consumer price inflation rate edged down further to 0.1% in August as economic conditions remained weak amid the third wave of local epidemic. Prices of meals bought away from home saw a slightly larger year-on-year decline, while price pressures on many other major CPI components receded further.
Looking ahead, price pressures on both external and domestic fronts should remain tame in the rest of year amid subdued global and local economic conditions. The Government will continue to monitor the situation closely.