Hong Kong’s consumer price inflation eased at a faster-than-expected pace in April to reach its lowest level in nearly three years, figures from the Census and Statistics Department showed Thursday.
Overall composite consumer prices rose 2.8 percent year-over-year in April, much slower than previous month’s 4.5 percent climb.
It was mainly affected by the Government’s relief measure of rates concession for April to September 2015 while there was no such measure in March 2015, the agency said.
Economists had expected a 4.3 percent increase for the month. The latest rate of inflation was the slowest since July 2012, when prices had risen 1.6 percent.
The underlying inflation eased to 2.4 percent in April from 2.8 percent in the previous month, largely due to the enlarged decreases in the prices of fresh vegetables and the smaller increases in the prices of fresh fruit.
“Looking ahead, given the benign global inflation, lower international energy and food prices as well as modest growth pace of the economy, inflation should remain contained in the near term, ” a government spokesman said.
“The Government will continue to monitor the inflation developments closely, particularly its impact on the lower-income people.”
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