In September, the annual rate of inflation as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices stood at 0.6 per cent, the National Statistics Office said today. The same rate as recorded a year earlier.
The largest upward impacts on annual inflation were brought about by the Restaurants and Hotels Index (0.6 percentage points), the Clothing and Footwear Index (0.2 percentage points) and the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Index (0.2 percentage points). This was mainly due to costlier restaurant services, garments and cigarettes respectively.
The main downward impacts were recorded in the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels Index (-0.7 percentage points), Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages (-0.1 percentage points) and the Communication Index (-0.1 percentage points).
This was mainly due to lower electricity rates, cheaper prices of fruit and reduced prices of mobile phones respectively.
The twelve-month moving average rate was 0.8 per cent.