Headline inflation rose to 7.5 percent in January, up from 7.4 percent in December. This was despite lower inflation across several commodity groups, including: alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 12.2 percent to 12.1 percent); clothing and footwear (from 6.3 percent to 6.0 percent); recreation and culture (from 5.8 percent to 5.6 percent); education (from6.4 percent to 4.8 percent); and restaurants and hotels (from 9.7 percent to 9.3 percent). These falls were more than offset by higher inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 7.3 percent to 7.5 percent); housing water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 4.8 percent to 4.9 percent);health (from 4.9 percent to 7.5 percent); transport (from 10.8 percent to 10.9 percent); andmiscellaneous goods and services (from 1.1 percent to 1.2 percent). Inflation was unchanged for furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance, transport (5.4 percent), and communication (0.6 percent).

Both the trimmed mean measure of core inflation and inflation excluding administered prices also increased, from 7.1 percent to 7.2 percent and from 6.8 percent to 6.9 percent, respectively.