The annual rate of inflation, as measured by the retail price index, stood at 1.2% last month, down from 1.5% in August.

The National Statistics Office said yesterday the highest annual inflation rates in September were noted in the ‘other goods and services’ (4.4%) and ‘personal care and health’ (3.4%) categories.

On the other hand, the lowest annual inflation rates were registered in ‘furnishings and household equipment’ (-0.8%) and ‘transport and communication’ (-0.5%) classifications.

The largest upward contribution to the overall annual inflation was registered in the ‘food’ index (+0.45 percentage points), largely due to higher prices of restaurant services.

The second- and third-largest contributions were measured in the ‘other goods and services’ index (+0.32 percentage points) and the ‘personal care and health’ index (+0.30 percentage points), mainly because of higher prices of insurances and articles of personal hygiene, respectively.

The downward contributions to the overall annual inflation were registered in the ‘transport and communication’ index (-0.12 percentage points), the ‘furnishings and household equipment’ index (-0.05 percentage points) and the ‘clothing and footwear’ index (-0.03 percentage points). This mainly reflected lower prices of mobile phone services, household appliances and garments, respectively, the NSO said.