HONGKONG'S official inflation rate rose to 8.5 per cent in May, suggesting that the starkly lower rates of price increases in March and April were aberrations.
The Government blamed higher vegetable prices for the rise in the most widely used indicator, the Consumer Price Index (A), and suggested interpreting the rates of the past three months together to obtain a clearer idea of the prevailing inflationary climate.
A HongkongBank economic adviser, Jim Wong Hock-yuen, attributed the rise in the CPI (A) to a high percentage jump in the price of food, which has a 26.8 per cent weighting.
The cost of food in May, apart from meals eaten in restaurants, rose by 5.6 per cent over May last year, against a rise of just 0.8 per cent in April over that month last year.
Housing continued to lead the spiral, rising 12.8 per cent for the income group under CPI (A) and up to 14.4 per cent for wealthier families, with the cost of alcoholic drinks next, increasing 9.6 per cent.
The Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce's chief economist, Ian Perkin, said he had been expecting an impact from food.
''Food has been affected by the yuan devaluation,'' he said. ''That has been going on for about 12 months to the month, so it has started to clear out of the system,'' he said.
