October 23, 2007	Tuesday	Shawwal 10, 1428

HONG KONG, Oct 22: Inflation in Hong Kong held steady at 1.6 per cent as smaller increases in the cost of tour packages and a government subsidy on rent offset higher food prices, the government said on Monday.A government spokesman said Hong Kong’s inflation was on a rising trend because of Hong Kong’s growing economy. Without tax concessions such as the rent subsidy, inflation would have been 2.7pc in Sept, he added.The rise in inflation compared to the previous September was mainly due to the faster rise in food prices.

“The year-on-year increase in food prices further enlarged from 4.6pc in August to 6 per cent in September,” the spokesman said.“On the other hand, the implementation of the pre-primary education voucher scheme and the smaller increase in prices of package tours partly offset the impact of the higher food prices.”—AFP