Wednesday’s consumer price index figure exceeded the expectations of economists polled by Reuters, who predicted inflation would remain stable at 2.9% in December. The month-on-month increase – for January – also exceeded expectations, at 0.5 per cent compared to the 0.3 per cent expected. A big contributor to the increase was the surge in the price of eggs, which rose 15.2% during the month and 53% year-on-year, partly due to the impact of bird flu.
