Hong Kong's consumer price declined for the second straight month in August, data from the Census and Statistics Department showed on Monday.
The consumer price index fell 0.4 percent year-on-year in August, following a 2.3 percent decrease in July.
The smaller annual fall in prices was mainly due to the effect of the Government's payment of public housing rentals and waiver of two-thirds of rent for tenants of in some housing estates in July dissipated in August, the agency said.
Excluding the effects of all government's one-off relief measures, core inflation was 0.1 percent in August versus 0.2 percent in the previous month.
The underlying consumer price inflation rate edged down further as economic conditions remained weak amid the third wave of the coronavirus, or Covid-19 epidemic, a government spokesman said.
"Prices of meals bought away from home saw a slightly larger year-on-year decline, while price pressures on many other major CPI components receded further," spokesman added.
"Looking ahead, price pressures on both external and domestic fronts should remain tame in the rest of year amid subdued global and local economic conditions."
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