The year-on-year rate of increase in the Composite Consumer Price Index (CPI) in May 2009 was 1.3 percent, the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong released in Hong Kong on June 22.

According to the Composite CPI, overall consumer prices remained unchanged in May 2009 compared with the same month a year earlier.

The year-on-year rates of change in the CPIs in May were still affected by various Government's one-off relief measures, in particular the implementation of electricity charge subsidy.

Netting out the effects of all Government's one-off relief measures, the year-on-year rate of increase in the Composite CPI in May was 1.3 percent, smaller than that in April (1.9 percent), mainly due to the decreases in private housing rentals and charges for package tours.

A Government spokesman says that consumer price inflation came down further in May. The receding of local and external price pressures has been part of the adjustment process in the midst of the severe global economic downturn.

The spokesman adds that taking into account the current economic climate, inflationary pressures, if any, will remain weak in the near term.

(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2009)