Periodic monitoring of consumer prices revealed an inflation rate of 5.6% during the month of August 2012, unchanged from July of the same year, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
This stability is due, in part, to the year-on-year increase of tobacco group which rose from 9.8% in July to 18.2% in August, because of the last increase in tobacco prices, and secondly, the decline in the inflation rate of the food and beverage group from 7.5% in July to 6.8% in August 2012.
Moreover, the price index for household consumption grew by 0.5% during the month of August 2012 compared to July of the same year. The furniture and appliances group rose 0.5%, due to higher prices of housing maintenance services at the rate of 0.6%, household appliances (0.7%) and kitchen equipment (0.7%), while the telecommunications group posted an increase of 0.7%.
In contrast, the clothing and footwear group fell 0.4% at the start of the summer sales season.
