Lower fuel price reduces inflation in April

The year-on-year change in consumer prices in April was minus 0.3 per cent, said Statistics Finland.

In March, inflation stood at 0.6 per cent. The decline in inflation was caused by lower prices of petrol and refundable prescription medicines, for example.

Consumer prices were raised most in April by increases in the prices of cigarettes, fruits and electricity as well as higher maintenance charges from one year ago.

Any rise in consumer prices from one year back was curbed mostly by reductions in the prices of petrol, light fuel oil and diesel. From March to April, the month-on-month change of consumer prices was minus 0.3 per cent, caused mainly by lower prices of petrol.

Every mid-month, Statistics Finland’s interviewers collect altogether 44,000 prices on nearly 470 commodities from approximately 2,700 outlets for building the Consumer Price Index. The price data are supplemented by scanner data including around three million food prices. In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.