Customers buy goods from a shop with a sign that reads "We accept consumption vouchers" at a market in Tsuen Wan on April 4, 2022. (ANDY CHONG / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's overall consumer prices registered a year-on-year increase of 1.9 percent in July 2022, the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said on Monday.

External price pressures are expected to remain notable for some time amid elevated inflation in some major import sources, said a spokesman for the HKSAR government

Netting out the effects of all HKSAR government's one-off relief measures, the year-on-year rate of increase in the composite consumer price index (CPI) in July 2022 was 1.9 percent, slightly larger than the 1.8 percent in June 2022.

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A spokesman for the HKSAR government said that the underlying consumer price inflation stayed moderate in overall terms in July, and prices of food, energy-related items, and clothing and footwear recorded visible year-on-year increases, while price pressures on other major CPI components were broadly in check.

External price pressures are expected to remain notable for some time amid elevated inflation in some major import sources, the spokesman said.

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Overall inflation should stay moderate in the near term as local cost pressures should continue to be mild, the spokesman added.