HK's deflation coming to an end - Officials
( 2004-01-30 10:00) (Xinhua)
Month-on-month figures suggest that deflation in
Hong Kong may have ended, said Hong Kong SAR Monetary Authority Chief Executive
Joseph Yam.
The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures suggested that overall consumer
prices fell 1.9 per cent in December compared with a year earlier, Yam added in
his viewpoint column posted Thursday on the authority's homepage.
Yam said that he wished to know whether, in the month that has just passed,
consumer prices have continued to fall and, if so, atwhat rate.
"And so I wish to know when this fall amounting to 1.9 per cent took place.
Maybe prices have been falling in the first part of the year by, say, 3 per cent
and have since increased by 1.1 per cent, so that the net decrease is 1.9 per
cent," he added.
Yam suggested that the consumer prices in Hong Kong might have stopped
falling around August 2003.
"They seem to have been increasing since. Longer observation isneeded before
a firm conclusion can be drawn, but deflation -- taking the word to mean an
ongoing process of falling prices -- may be over, and the turning point may have
been in August 2003."
The Composite CPI for December 2002 was 93.8. It fell almost continuously
during the first part of 2003 and by August it reached the lowest level on
record of 91. Since August, it has been increasing, and by December it reached
92.
"In other words, there has been an increase over the period from August to
December 2003 in the Composite CPI of 1.1 per cent,"said Yam.
|
