Hong Kong's overall consumer prices in September rose 1.6 percent over a year earlier, the same as the August increase, the Census and Statistics Department said in a press release Monday.

Certain food items showed large price rises, with the price of eggs up 32 percent, pork up 30.4 percent, poultry up 27.8 percent and fresh vegetables up 14 percent.

Compared with 4.6 percent in August, prices of basic foodstuffs went up further in September because of global food inflation and a seasonal rise in prices of fresh fruits and poultry and around the mid-autumn festival, the department said.

The price hike for poultry was particularly sharp, due to the combined effect of seasonal surge in demand and reduced supply resulting from certain bird flu outbreaks.

The implementation of pre-primary education voucher scheme and a smaller price hike in package tours have partly offset the impact of higher food prices, the release said.

Slight year-on-year price increases were also recorded for meals bought away from home, miscellaneous goods, clothing and footwear and transport.

Prices for durable goods, however, fell by 4.2 percent and price for electricity, gas and water, went down 2.6 percent too.

Taking the first nine months of 2007 together, the composite consumer prices rose 1.5 percent over a year earlier. For the 12 months ending September, the index was on average 1.7 percent higher than in the preceding 12-month period.

The department said inflation was on a slowly rising trend, adding that that recent cuts in public housing rentals and a sustained rise in labor productivity would continue to help alleviate upward price pressures in the coming months.