The year-on-year rates of change in the Composite CPI
after netting out the effects of all Government’s one-off relief measures are
presented graphically in Chart 1 below.
As shown in Table 10,
relatively mild annual rates of increase and even annual rates of decrease
in
the index for transport in all the CPIs were observed in the years 2002
to 2007 as well as 2009. This
was because the fares for the majority
of public transport had been frozen then, and some transport
companies offered
various promotion schemes amidst the subdued demand conditions, thereby
lowering
the actual fares paid by the public.
The larger annual rates of increase
recorded in the index for transport in 2008, 2010 and 2011 was
caused
largely by the increases in the inbound and outbound transport fares,
together with the
increases in MTR and bus fares. Compared with September 2011, increases in the section
indices in
September 2012 were recorded for housing (5.6% in the Composite CPI
and 6.9% in the CPI(A));
meals bought away from home (5.1% and 5.3%);
electricity, gas and water (3.7% and 3.0%); food
(excluding meals bought away
from home) (3.4% and 3.5%); miscellaneous services (3.0% and
2.1%); transport
(2.1% and 1.5%); clothing and footwear (2.0% and 3.7%); miscellaneous goods
(1.2%
and 2.4%) and alcoholic drinks and tobacco (0.7% and 0.9%).
The index for transport decreased by 0.2%, 0.3%
and 0.2% in the Composite CPI, CPI(A) and
CPI(B). This was largely because MTR
Corporation provided fares concessions. Meanwhile, the
index for
transport decreased by 0.2% in the CPI(C). This was mainly because of the
decreases in the
charges for purchases of and repairs to motor vehicles.
