Hong Kong: Inflation picks up in September
Inflation rose to 2.7% in September, up from 2.3% in August. When accounting for the effects of one-off government relief measures, inflation reached 3.1% (August: 2.6%). The print mostly reflected “increases in school fees and the upward adjustment in public housing rentals”.
For the July–September period, the average of the month-on-month variations in consumer prices was 0.2% in seasonally-adjusted terms, matching the result in the three months up to August. Meanwhile, annual average inflation inched up from 2.1% in August to 2.2% in September.
A government spokesperson noted that:
“Looking ahead, the inflation rate may still be subject to some mild upward pressure in the rest of the year, as local costs have increased along with the sustained economic expansion, and as the earlier rises in fresh-letting residential rentals would also continue to feed through”