Inflation increases slightly to 0.8 % in Jan

The year-on-year change in consumer prices calculated by Statistics Finland was 0.8 per cent in January. In December, inflation stood at 0.5 per cent.

Consumer prices were raised most in January by increases in the prices of cigarettes, the vehicle tax and rents from one year ago.

Compared to one year ago, the biggest decreases were recorded in the consumer prices of children’s day care, mobile telephones, real estate and second-hand passenger cars. From December to January, consumer prices changed by -0.3 per cent. Statistics Finland has updated the commodity basket for the consumer price index and the weight structure of consumption at the beginning of January.

For example, music streaming services were added to the commodity basket and landline telephone call charges and video camera were removed due to low consumption.

Each mid-month, Statistics Finland's interviewers collect altogether around 50,000 prices on nearly 470 commodities from approximately 2,700 outlets for the Consumer Price Index. In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.