The annual rate of inflation as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices stood at 0.7 per cent in June, up from 0.6 per cent a year earlier, the NSO said today.
The largest upward impact on annual inflation was brought about by the Restaurants and Hotels Index (0.6 percentage points), followed by the Furniture, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House Index (0.3 percentage points) and the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Index (0.2 percentage points). This was mainly due to costlier restaurant services, furniture items and cigarettes respectively.
The main downward impacts were recorded in the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels Index (-0.7 percentage points), the Communication Index (-0.1 percentage points) and the Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages Index (-0.1 percentage points).
These, the NSO said, were mainly due to lower electricity rates, prices of mobile phones and the price of vegetables, as shown in Table 5.
The twelve-month moving average rate was 0.8 per cent.