The March issue of the Monthly Digest of Statistics is now on sale, featuring an article on the movements of the Consumer Price Index over the past decade.

The consumer price inflation rate slowed gradually from around 6% in 1997 to around 3% in 1998 as a result of downward adjustments in prices due to regional financial turmoil in late 1997.

In the following six years, the consumer price index generally registered annual falls due to the weakness of the global economy and increasing integration of the Hong Kong economy with that of the Mainland. It reverted to annual increases in 2005 and 2006.

The digest contains four other features:

* The Financial Services Sector in Hong Kong;

* Enhanced method for compiling statistics on Hong Kong residents having resided / having stayed substantially on the Mainland;

* Statistics on Innovation Activities in the Business Sector, 2001-2005; and,

* The Situation of the 4 Key Industries in the Hong Kong Economy in 2005.