Inflation increases to 1.3% in February

The year-on-year change in consumer prices was 1.3 per cent in February, according to Statistics Finland.

In January, inflation stood at 1.1 per cent. The slight increase in inflation was caused by a rise in electricity prices, for example.

Consumer prices were raised most in February by increases in the prices of electricity, capital repair on detached house, cigarettes, bank charges and rents from one year ago.

The rising of consumer prices from one year back was curbed most by reductions in the prices of mobile phones, long-distance passenger transport by coach, televisions and second-hand passenger cars.

From January to February, the month-on-month change of consumer prices was 0.5 per cent, which was caused by lower prices of international flights, for example.

Each mid-month, Statistics Finland's interviewers collect altogether around 50,000 prices on nearly 470 commodities from approximately 2,700 outlets for the Consumer Price Index.

In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.