HONG KONG - Hong Kong's Consumer Price Index (CPI) in July surged to 7.9 percent from a year ago, compare with the 5.6 percent rise in June, the city's statistics department said here on Monday.

The jump was mainly due to the low base of comparison resulted from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government's payment of public housing rentals in last July.

Netting out the effects of all the one-off relief measures from the HKSAR, the underlying inflation rate was 5.8 percent last month from a year earlier, still higher than the 5.5 percent increase in June, mainly due to the enlarged increases in private housing rentals, pork prices and the charges for package tours.

The prices for alcoholic drinks and tobacco jumped 20.1 percent; housing prices advanced 16.4 percent; while food prices climbed 10.7 percent, according to the data.

A government spokesman said the inflation is likely to remain notable in the near term, on the back of still-elevated global food prices, the further feed-through of higher private residential rentals, as well as the higher domestic cost pressures amid the economic upturn.

The spokesman said the HKSAR will continue to monitor the movements of the global food and commodity prices, and remain vigilant about the local inflation situation, particularly its impact on the lower-income people.