No change in prices from November to December

Consumer prices rose 0.8 per cent in the year to December. There was no change from November to December. The mean inflation for 1996 was 0.6 per cent. This information can be gathered from the Consumer Price Index of Statistics Finland.

The price of food, which fell during the year to December, came to a halt in December due to the over 7 per cent increase in the prices of fruits and vegetables on the previous year. The prices of vegetables rose most of all. The prices of fish and sugar products also rose in the course of 1996. The biggest fall was noted in the prices of coffee, potatoes and meat.

Price changes of food 12/1995 - 12/1996, %

Of the various commodity groups, the highest rise over the year was in beverages and tobacco, up 2.8 per cent, and in health and medical care, up 2.0 per cent. Their impact on inflation was, however, slighter than that of, for example, petrol, the price of which rose 16 per cent and contributed +0.6 percentage points to the rate of inflation. The speed of inflation was checked most clearly by the cut in interest rates and the lower prices charged for used cars.

table 1

There was on average no change in consumer prices from November to December. The seasonal rise in package tour prices, and the increase in the prices of petrol, light fuel oil and used cars tended to have the greatest upward pressure on prices. The rising trend was curbed most by the slight fall-off in clothes prices and the drop in interest rates.

table 2

The above rises and falls do not necessarily have much effect on the monthly change
in the CPI, even though they are in themselves substantial.

Finland's inflation third lowest in the EU

In November the year-on-year change in the interim harmonised consumer index of the EU was 1.4 per cent for Finland; this was the third lowest in the EU countries. The lowest was in Sweden, at 0.2 per cent. The average change for all EU member states in November was 2.3 per cent. table 3

In November the point figure of the Bank of Finland's indicator of underlying inflation was 111.5 and the year-on- year change 0.4 per cent. The change on one month was -0.2 per cent.

Source: Consumer Price Index, December 1996
Further information: Arja Kinnunen, tel. +358 9 1734 3479,
Juhani Pekkarinen +358 9 1734 3476