In December, the annual rate of inflation as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices stood at 1.2 per cent, the NSO said today.

A year earlier the annual rate was 0.4 per cent.

The largest upward impacts on annual inflation were brought about by the Food and Nonalcoholic Beverages Index (0.43 percentage points), the Restaurants and Hotels Index (0.29 percentage points) and the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Index (0.22 percentage points). These were mainly due to higher prices of vegetables, restaurant services and cigarettes respectively.

The main downward impacts were recorded in the Transport Index (0.30 percentage points) and the Communication Index (0.10 percentage points), mainly due to lower fuel prices and cheaper mobile phones respectively.

The twelve-month moving average rate was 1.2 per cent.