Inflation rate rise in November

The year-on-year change in consumer prices calculated by Statistics Finland was 0.7 percent in November. In October inflation stood also at 0.7 percent, said Statistics Finland.

Consumer prices were raised most in November by increases in the prices of cigarettes, electricity, rents 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 average interest rate on housing loans, mobile phones, diesel and petrol. From October to November the month-on-month change of consumer prices was -0.1 percent, which was caused by international flights being cheaper, 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. In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.

According to the preliminary data on the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, the rate of inflation in the euro area was 1.0 percent in November. In October, it was 0.7 percent. The corresponding figure for Finland was 0.8 percent in November.

The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices does not include owner-occupancy, games of chance, interests on consumption and other credits, fire insurance on owner-occupied dwellings, the vehicle tax or fishing and hunting fees. The consumption items included in the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, as well as the rules governing its compilation, have been defined in EU regulations.

Eurostat’s estimate of inflation in the euro area is based on preliminary data from the Member States and on the price development of energy. Eurostat will publish detailed data on Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices for November on 18 December. Information of inflation in EU countries is available on Eurostat homepage.