HK's CPI up 4% in April

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's overall consumer prices rose by 4 percent in April over the same month in 2012, larger than the corresponding increase of 3.6 percent in March, the city's Census and Statistics Department announced on Tuesday.

Netting out the effects of all government's one-off relief measures, the year-on-year rate of increase in the Composite Consumer Price Index (CPI), the underlying inflation rate in April was 3.9 percent, larger than the March level of 3.7 percent, mainly attributable to the increases in the prices of fresh vegetables.

The larger magnitude of widening in the year-on-year rate of increase in the Composite CPI (from 3.6 percent in March to 4 percent in April) as compared with the underlying counterpart (from 3.7 percent in March to 3.9 percent in April) was largely due to the lower ceiling of rates concession, from HK$2,500($322.17) per quarter for each ratable property to HK$1,500 starting from April.

A government spokesman expected inflation to rise slightly in the coming months as the lagged effects of the rise in private housing rentals during 2012 feed through. Nonetheless, imported inflation stayed tame and the recent softening in housing rentals should help contain the upward pressure on inflation in the latter part of this year.