Consumer prices in Hong Kong in January rose 3.2 percent year on year, with an increase as high as 15.6 percent in food prices, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government said Friday.

The Census and Statistics Department of the SAR government attributed the rise in consumer price mainly to rising food prices but said the government measure of rate cuts provided some relief and helped bring down the headline inflation.

"The recent build-up of inflationary pressures reflected to a certain extent the strong consumption demand supported by the vibrant economic growth over the past few years," a government spokesman was quoted as saying.

"From a broader perspective, rising food and energy prices had led to rising inflationary pressures in many parts of the world," he said.

The spokesman also said the snowstorms in the Chinese mainland, which had disrupted food supplies in January, would continue to have an impact on food prices in February.

The appreciation of the renminbi and the weakening of the Hong Kong dollar, which has been pegged to the U.S. dollar, would continue to pose upside risks, he said, adding that the recent upward trend in private housing rentals deserved monitoring.

However, the sustained labor productivity growth in Hong Kong, a special administrative region and largely independent economy in China, was expected to partly offset the upward price pressures, he said.

In a breakdown, food prices excluding meals bought away from home in January shot up 15.6 percent, with a surge of 48.2 percent for pork, 41.4 percent for beef, 34.7 percent for canned meat, 22.7 percent for other meat and 20.1 percent for fresh vegetables.

The price for electricity, gas and water went up 7 percent.

Price for meals brought away from home added 4.8 percent while miscellaneous goods price went up 4.1 percent. Clothing and footwear prices were up 1.2 percent, alcohol and tobacco prices edged up 0.1 percent while service price rose 1 percent.

The price of durable goods recorded a year-on-year decline of 3.4 percent.

For the quarter ending January the composite consumer price index rose 3.5 percent over a year earlier. For the 12 months ending January, the index on average was 2.1 percent higher than in the preceding 12-month period.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2008)