HONG KONG, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key barometer of the inflation rate, went up 2.1 percent in September 2006 over the same period of last year in Hong Kong, slightly down from 2.5 percent in August, revealed latest statistics here Friday.

    According to the statistics released Friday by the Census and Statistics Department, the weaker year-on-year increase in the Composite CPI in September was mainly due to the smaller increases in the prices of fresh vegetables, the charges for telephone and other communications services, private housing rental, as well as the fuel cost variation charge for town-gas.

    The housing sectors saw the most strong composite CPI rise in September, up 4.8 percent year on year. The consumer prices of electricity, gas and water went up 3.1 percent while food was 2.3 percent more expensive than the same period a year earlier.

    Year-on-year declines in prices in September were recorded in durable goods, alcoholic drinks and tobacco, down 6.7 percent and 4 percent respectively.

    The Composite CPI registered a moderate upwards pace for the past nine months in 2006, up by 2 percent over a year earlier, according to the statistics.

    A government spokesman contributed the slowed down consumer price inflation in September to the fall-back in prices of certain fresh food items and the falling oil prices.

    The spokesman forecast that inflation is likely to stay moderate to the end of the year on current indications but warned the recent weakening of the Hong Kong dollar fixed with the U.S. dollar might caused some modest pick-up in imported inflation.

    He said the substantial fall-off in oil prices lately coupled with the sustained increase in productivity in Hong Kong should keep overall inflationary pressures in check.