The consumer price index rose 1.6 percent in September, sustaining double-digit inflation at an annual rate of 15 percent for the first nine months of the year.
The figures, released by the Central Bureau of Statistics Sunday, showed that higher housing costs accounted for more than half the rise.
This led to concern that inflation will worsen, at least in the short term, if the expected large-scale immigration from the Soviet Union materializes, placing severe new burdens on the country’s short supply of housing.
In any event, the Finance Ministry seems to have little chance of realizing its goal to bring inflation below 10 percent this year.
To achieve that would have required a monthly price increase of less than 1 percent.
But Finance Minister Shimon Peres looks at the brighter side. He pointed out that the cost-of-living rise this September was lower than the 1.7 percent in September 1988.
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