Hong Kong’s composite consumer-price index in October rose 2.4% from a year earlier, accelerating from the previous month as the September reading was distorted by the government’s one-off relief measures, the Census and Statistics Department said Monday, Dow Jones reported. October’s CPI increase was above the median 1.9% rise forecast by three economists surveyed earlier by The Wall Street Journal and September’s 2.0% rise. “Looking ahead, inflation should remain contained in the near term given the receding external price pressures and modest growth pace of the local economy,” a government spokesman said in a statement. The Hong Kong government said in its most recent forecast earlier this month that headline CPI will likely rise 3% this year, compared with a 4.4% increase in 2014.
