Cigarettes, electricity rents and wireless telephone services are the main products that raised consumer prices in August.
According to Statistics Finland, the year-on-year inflation rate was 1.1% last month. In July, inflation stood at 0.8%.
But in August there were also consumer prices that fell compared to one year back. The rising was curbed most by reductions in the prices of mobile phones, televisions, outdoor equipment for sport, regular ferry service and petrol.
Source: Statistics Finland.
From July to August, the month-on-month increase of consumer prices was 0.4%, which was caused by vegetables being more expensive, for example.
Each mid-month, Statistics Finland's interviewers collect altogether 44,000 prices on nearly 470 commodities from approximately 2,700 outlets for the Consumer Price Index. Price data is supplemented with scanner data including around 3 million food prices. In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.
Lower inflation in euro area
According to preliminary data on the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, the inflation rate in the euro area was 1% in August, the same as in July. The corresponding figure for Finland was 1.2% in August.
The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices does not include owner-occupancy, games of chance, interests on consumption and other credits, fire insurance on owner-occupied dwellings, the vehicle tax or fishing and hunting fees. The consumption items included in the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, as well as the rules governing its compilation, have been defined in EU regulations.
