HONG KONG, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's consumer prices rose by 2.4 percent in January over the same month a year earlier, official data showed on Friday.

The figure was slightly smaller than the corresponding increase of 2.5 percent in December 2018, mainly due to the government's provision of electricity charge subsidy starting from January 2019, according to the Census and Statistics Department of the government of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Netting out the effects of all government's one-off relief measures, the year-on-year rate of increase in the Composite CPI (namely the underlying inflation rate) in January was 3 percent, slightly larger than 2.9 percent in December 2018, mainly due to the enlarged increases in the costs for meals bought away from home and the charges for household services.

A government spokesman said the underlying inflation rate edged up to 3 percent in January. Given the likely distortion from the difference in timing of the Lunar New Year (which fell in early February this year but in mid-February last year), it would be more meaningful to examine the figures for January and February combined, when available, to assess the underlying inflation situation. Enditem

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