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15 January 1996

Inflation stable in December

Consumer prices rose by 0.3 per cent in the year to December. Inflation has remained the same for four months already. Prices were down by 0.1 per cent from November to December. The average rate of inflation was 1.0 per cent in 1995. This appears from Statistics Finland's Consumer Price Index.

Studied by commodity group the highest rise in one year was in transport and communication, up by 2.9 per cent. This was due mainly to the rise in the price of used cars, the increase in the car utilisation fee in June, and the rise in the price of petrol at the beginning of this year. Transport and communications accounted for 0.6 percentage points of the inflation in December. There was an increase of 7.5 per cent in the price of light fuel oil from November to December. The price of package tours was also up in December.

In December of this year food was 8.5 per cent cheaper than in December of the year before, which lowered inflation by 1.2 percentage points. The greatest decrease was in the price of eggs, flour and pork fillet. The fall in the price of food was 0.6 per cent from November to December.

As a result of EU membership the fall in the price of food in Finland was more than the anticipated. In December the price of food was, as opposed to the anticipated 10 per cent, on average 11 per cent cheaper than in September of 1994, when the adjustment to EU membership began.

The 18 per cent fall in the price of meat exceeded expectations by roughly 2 percentage points. The fall in the price of fresh beef exceeded expectations the most clearly, where the fall was 24 per cent as opposed to the estimated 8 per cent. The fall in the price of fresh pork and sausages was also slightly more than estimated. The price of eggs was estimated to fall by one tenth, while the actual fall was 42 per cent. In the case of plain bread, sweetbread, bread and grain products, as well as in sugar products and sweets, instead, the price fall was less than expected.

The Consumer Price Index 1990=100 was 111.8 in December.
The Cost of Living Index 1951:10=100 was 1387.


Changes in the price of food between September 1994 and December 1995

Underlying inflation at -0.5 per cent in November

The point figure of the indicator of underlying inflation 1990=100 was 111.1 in November and the change on one year was -0.5 per cent.

Source: Consumer Price Index, December 1995
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Mr Juhani Pekkarinen, tel +358 0 1734 3476