Brunei's Consumer Price Index (CPI) in August 2018 increased by 0.3 percent year-on-year compared to August in 2017, owing to the rise in prices of food and education, according to the latest statistics from Brunei's Department of Economic Planning and Development (JPKE) at the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday.

In its monthly CPI report, JPKE said that the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages prices increased by 2.2 percent, while the Non-Food prices decreased by 0.2 percent year-on-year.

The increase in the overall CPI in August was largely attributed to the rise in the indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages (2.2 percent), education (1.7 percent), and recreation and culture (1.4 percent).

A senior manager of Baiduri Bank, which is the second biggest local bank by total assets in Brunei, told Xinhua that the country's CPI has been stable for the past year, which is supportive of local economy growth.

On a month-a-month basis, the CPI in August 2018 increased by 0.1 percent compared to July in 2018.

CPI is a measure of price changes of goods and services paid by the consumers in a specified period. Brunei's list of goods and services in the CPI is based on the average expenditure per household.