Hong?Kong's consumer prices fell 1.5 percent in July over the same month last year as there was an absence of local and external price pressures, its Census and Statistics Department said yesterday.

Netting out the effects of the government's one-off relief measures, the underlying deflation rate was 0.3 percent, mainly due to a bigger drop in food prices and a smaller rise in rents for private housing.

Electricity, gas and water fell 42.3 percent year on year, as a result of a government subsidy. Declines were also seen in miscellaneous services, dropping 3.8 percent; durable goods, 3.4 percent; food (excluding meals bought away from home), 2.6 percent; and transport, 2.3 percent.

Year-on-year increases were recorded for alcohol and tobacco, rising 22.8 percent; housing, 2.7 percent; miscellaneous goods, 1.5 percent; clothing and footwear, 1.3 percent; and meals bought away from home, 0.8 percent.

Consumer price inflation is set to be negative in the coming months, the department said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2009)