THURSDAY, 11.30AM
DESPITE a month-on-month increase of 0,4% from August to September in the Consumer Price Index, the official inflation rate — the annual rate of change in the Consumer Price Index — is 8,0% at September 1997, 0,7% lower than August’s 8,7%, and the lowest since August last year.
Latest Central Statistical Services figures say that the 0,4% increase is due to increases in the prices of cigarettes and tobacco, housing, furniture and office equipment, and transport.
But the annual food inflation rate of increase is down to 8,3% in September, a significant improvement on August’s 10%. The monthly rate for food is up 0,3%, due to increases in the price of meat, dairy products, fats and oils, vegetables, coffee and tea, which were offset by decreases in the prices of grains and seafood.
The CSS notes that the annualised change between the average index of the three months up to September 1997 and the average of the previous three months, seasonally adjusted, shows a rate of increase of 6,6% (which is 0,1 of a percentage point higher than the corresponding rate of 6,5% for August 1997), while unadjusted data shows an increase of 6,5%.
Analysts noted that the steady decline in inflation will encourage the Reserve Bank to hasten further rate cuts. But the stock market, pre-occupied with the Hong Kong disaster, barely noticed the good inflation news.