Inflation increases to 0.9% in January

The year-on-year change in consumer prices was 0.9 per cent in January, according to the Statistics Finland.

In December, inflation stood at 0.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, the commodity basket for the Consumer Price Index and the weight structure were updated at the beginning of January. The usage of total data was expanded with utility goods, such as tableware, bed linen, and toys.

In addition to that, new total datasets were taken into use, which include sales information regarding food products, alcoholic drinks, cleaning and maintenance products, pet products, and personal hygiene products.

Consumer prices were raised most in January by increases in the prices of cigars, international flights, long train journeys, and detached houses from one year ago.

The rising of consumer prices from one year back was curbed most by reductions in the prices of fuels, hotel rooms, vegetables, and average interest rate on housing loans.

From December to January, the month-on-month change of consumer prices was 0.3 per cent, which was caused by higher prices of petrol compared to previous month.

Each mid-month, the Statistics Finland’s interviewers collect altogether 19,000 prices on nearly 400 commodities from about 2,100 outlets for building the Consumer Price Index.