Hong Kong: Inflation stabilizes in July
Inflation stabilized at June’s 2.4% in July. However, when accounting for the effects of one-off government relief measures, inflation reached 2.7% (unchanged from the previous month’s result). The print mostly reflected that higher prices for food and electricity, gas and water were offset by declining prices for durable goods.
For the May–July period, the average of the month-on-month variations in consumer prices was 0.2% in seasonally-adjusted terms, a notch above the 0.1% rise in the three months up to June. Meanwhile, annual average inflation remained stable at June’s 2.0% in July.
A government spokesperson noted that:
“In view of the edging up of global inflation and continued feed-through of earlier rises in fresh-letting residential rentals, local underlying consumer price inflation in the months ahead may remain somewhat higher than in the first half of 2018. Yet, inflation should stay within a moderate range for 2018 as a whole.”