Economy
SERVICE sector inflation fell in July to 10 per cent, but is declining slower than Hong Kong's overall inflation rate.
The consumer services price index (A), compiled by the Coalition of Service Industries, fell 0.2 percentage point from June compared with a 0.4-point monthly drop recorded by the Government's official consumer price index (A) which monitors a far wider basket of goods.
The CPI (A) eased to 8.2 per cent last month, following spikes to 8.5 per cent and 8.6 per cent in May and June, respectively.
The Government has revised its official annual inflation forecast downwards from 9.5 per cent to nine per cent.
Even so, business leaders consider the current rates of consumer inflation and overall inflation damagingly high.
The inflation rate has forced some Hong Kong companies such as Cathay Pacific to shift some back-office operations abroad to benefit from cheaper land and labour costs.
