September 2010 inflation rate at 2.4%

During the month under review, the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) went down by 0.7% over the previous month.

According to the NSO, this primarily reflected a decrease of 6.7% in the restaurants and hotels’ index, “due to seasonally cheaper accommodation services”.

The NSO reported that a downward movement in airfares led the transport index to go down by 1.3% during September 2010, while the communication index registered a drop of 0.4 % during this month, due to lower prices of mobile phones.

According to the NSO, lower fees for certain financial services also resulted in a decline of 0.3% in the miscellaneous goods and services index during September 2010 when compared to the previous month.

However, during September 2010, the clothing and footwear index went up by 9.9% when compared to the previous months due to “seasonal increases in the prices of garments”.

The NSO also reported that a rise in the price of vegetables caused the food and non-alcoholic beverages’ index to go up by 1.7% during September 2010.

Likewise, during the month under review, the furniture, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house index went up by 0.7% when compared to the previous month due to an increase in the prices of furniture and furnishings.

Higher prices for gas caused the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index to go up by 0.1% during September 2010 when compared to the previous month.

According to the NSO, a similar rise was also recorded in the recreation and culture index, mainly on account of higher-priced package holidays.