Inflation slightly reduces in October

The year-on-year change in consumer prices was 0.7 per cent in October, according to Statistics Finland.

In September inflation stood at 0.9 per cent. The decrease in inflation from September to October was caused by a milder rise in electricity prices, for example.

Consumer prices were raised most in October by increases in the prices of cigarettes, electricity, rents, hotel rooms and wireless telephone services from one year ago.

The rising of consumer prices from one year back was curbed most by reductions in the prices of petrol, average interest rate on housing loans, mobile phones and diesel.

From September to October the month-on-month change of consumer prices was 0.1 per cent, which was caused by international flights being more expensive, for example.

Each mid-month, Statistics Finland's interviewers collect altogether 44,000 prices on nearly 470 commodities from approximately 2,700 outlets for the Consumer Price Index. Price data is supplemented with scanner data including around 3 million food prices.