Inflation reduces slightly to 1.1% in January

The year-on-year change in consumer prices calculated by Statistics Finland was 1.1 per cent in January.

In December, inflation stood at 1.2 per cent, said a press release.

Statistics Finland has updated the commodity basket for the Consumer Price Index and the weight structure at the beginning of January. Drinking glass, frozen food container, plastic carrier bag, hair removal product and baby supply were added to the commodity basket. In addition, total data including sales data on all food products were taken into use.

Consumer prices were raised most in January by increases in the prices of electricity, fuels, capital repair on detached house, cigarettes and bank charges from one year ago.

The rising of consumer prices from one year back was curbed most by reductions in the prices of mobile phones, detached houses, long-distance passenger transport by coach and televisions.

From December to January, the month-on-month change of consumer prices was -0.4 per cent, which was caused by lower prices of international flights and package holidays.

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.