MACAO, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Macao's composite consumer price index () rose by 1.74 percent in January 2018 year-on-year to 111.14, a slowdown from the 2.04 percent increase in December 2017, the special administrative region's statistic service said on Monday.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) said the increment in January was attributable to higher charges for eating out, dearer prices of women's winter clothing and footwear, as well as rising parking meter rates and rentals for dwellings.

Among the various sections of goods and services, price indices of Clothing and Footwear, Health ,and Education went up by 6.09 percent, 4.58 percent and 4.21 percent respectively year-on-year, while those of Communication, Recreation and Culture fell by 11.32 percent and 5.61 percent respectively.

The DSEC report also showed that for the 12 months ended January 2018, the average composite CPI grew by 1.23 percent from the previous period, with notable increases in the price indices of Education (6.06 percent) and Health (4.53 percent). Meanwhile, price index of Communication decreased by 5.47 percent.