In September, annual inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased for the second successive month, rising 0.9 percentage points to 7.0 percent, from 6.1 percent in August. This increase was mainly due to price movement in two commodity groups: housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (where inflation rose from 2.8 percent to 3.8 percent); and, in particular, transport (from -17.4 percent to -11.9 percent). (In the case of transport, this reflected slowing deflation as the fall in fuel prices in September 2008 dropped out of the inflation calculation.) This was, however, dampened by lower inflation in most other categories, including food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 13.6 percent to 11.9 percent), furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 13.2 percent to 11.4 percent) and restaurants and hotels (from 21.3 percent to 19.3 percent).
Reflecting the continuing easing of underlying inflation pressures, both measures of core inflation declined in September. The trimmed mean fell by 0.1 percentage points from 6.9 percent in August to 6.8 percent; while, excluding administered prices, inflation declined by 0.8 percentage points from 13.4 percent to 12.6 percent.