Inflation drops slightly to 1.9% in July

The year-on-year change in consumer prices was 1.9 per cent in July, according to Statistics Finland.

In June, inflation stood at 2.0 per cent. The slight decline in inflation was caused by lower prices of games of chance, for example.

Consumer prices were raised most in July by increases in the prices of petrol, capital repair on detached houses, diesel, detached houses, and owner-occupied flats from one year ago.

The rising of consumer prices from one year back was curbed most by reductions in the prices of refundable prescription medicines, average interest rate on housing loans and consumer credit, regular ferry service, and games of chance.

From June to July, consumer prices rose by 0.3 per cent which was caused by higher prices of fuels, for example.

Each mid-month, Statistics Finland's interviewers collect altogether 19,000 prices on nearly 400 commodities from about 2,100 outlets for the Consumer Price Index.

The price data is supplemented with scanner data wherefrom 5 million individual prices are included into calculation. In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.