HELSINKI: The year-on-year change in consumer prices remained stable at 0.4 per cent in September, according to Statistics Finland’s data. In August, inflation was 0.4 per cent. The inflation remaining positive was influenced, for example, by increases in the consumer prices of the vehicle tax, hospital fees, dentist fees and rents from one year ago, the data show.
Consumer prices were raised in September by increases in the vehicle tax, hospital fees, dentist fees and rents from one year ago. The rising of consumer prices was curbed most by decreases in the consumer prices of liquid fuels and interest rates from the year before.
Examined in the short-term, the fall of inflation was mostly influenced by lower prices of vegetables and package tours. Consumer prices changed by 0.2 per cent from August to September. Each mid-month, Statistics Finland’s interviewers collect altogether around 48,000 prices on nearly 500 commodities from approximately 2,700 outlets for the Consumer Price Index. In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.
According to the preliminary data on the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, the rate of inflation in the euro area was 0.4 per cent in September. In August, it stood at 0.2 per cent. The corresponding figure for Finland in September was 0.5 per cent. The year-on-year change in the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices stood at 0.5 per cent in September and that in the Index at Constant Taxes measuring market inflation at 0.4 per cent.
Over twelve months, the combined raising impact on consumer prices from changes in commodity tax rates was thus 0.1 percentage points. The month-on-month change in the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices was 0.2 per cent and that in the Index at Constant Taxes 0.2 per cent in September, the statistics show.
The inflation measured by Consumer Price Index consists mainly of products and services priced by enterprises and the public sector, and value added and commodity taxes. Some 25 per cent of the private consumption described by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) consists of value added or other taxes.
