The annual rate of inflation as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices went down to 0.8 per cent last month, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

Data gathered by the office shows that in December it stood at 1.2 per cent.

The largest upward impacts on the annual inflation were brought about by the alcoholic beverages and tobacco index, up by 0.22 percentage points, the furniture, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house index, with an increase of 0.19 percentage points and the food and non-alcoholic beverages index, which increased by 0.16 percentage points.

The NSO said the increases were mainly due to higher prices of cigarettes, household appliances and meat.

The main downward impacts were recorded in the transport index (0.41 percentage points) and the communication index (0.05 percentage points), mainly due to lower fuel prices and cheaper mobile phones respectively.

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