In September, headline inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.3 percentage points to 7 percent from 6.7 percent in August. This was attributed mainly to increases in transport inflation (from 10.2 percent to 11.4 percent), clothing and footwear (from 6.7 percent to 7.7 percent), restaurants and hotels (from 8.3 percent to 9.3 percent), and alcohol and tobacco (from 7.9 percent to 8.8 percent), as well as smaller increases in inflation for furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 8.7 percent to 9.0 percent), recreation and culture (from 6.1 percent to 6.4 percent), health (from 3.2 percent to 3.3), and miscellaneous goods and services (from 7.1 percent to 7.2 percent). The increase in transport inflation was due to higher costs for transport services resulting from an increase in public transport fares, together with increased prices for vehicle purchases. However, a significant decline in inflation for  housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels inflation (from 7.9 percent to 6.4 percent) and unchanged inflation for food, communication and education, at 3.3 percent, 1.8 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively, helped stabilise overall price movements. Both the trimmed mean measure of core inflation and core inflation rate excluding administered prices increased, by 0.2 percentage points from 7.2 percent to 7.4 percent and from 6.3 percent to 6.5 percent, respectively.

Access the September CPI brief from the Central Statistics Office website