HCMC – Vietnam’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) in April edged up 0.18% month-on-month, mostly due to the rising prices of building materials, according to the General Statistics Office.
The CPI increase also resulted from the higher prices of catering and tourism services as well as education.
The index last month rose 2.09% over the end of last year and 2.64% year-on-year.
Among the 11 groups of consumer goods and services in the basket of items used to calculate the CPI, housing and construction materials climbed 2.7% on the surge in input material prices. The prices of gas, steel and materials for cement production, such as gasoline and coal, soared because of the Russia-Ukraine military conflict, according to Maybank Investment Securities.
Meanwhile, cultural, entertainment and tourism services, and food and catering services grew 1.8% and 3.8% year-on-year, respectively, above the growth in previous months, thanks to the increasing demand for tourism and the economic reopening.
In the first four months of the year, the CPI rose 2.1% year-on-year, higher than the 0.89% in the same period in 2021 but lower than the growth in the first four months in 2017-2020.
Core inflation in the January-April period edged up 0.97% over the year-ago period, meaning that monetary policy had worked. However, the pressure on inflation remains.
Inflation may rise in the coming months as the reopening of the economy will drive up demand. There will be pressure on the supply side given the Russia-Ukraine military conflict and China’s zero Covid policy, according to a report by Maybank Investment Securities.
In reality, forecasts about the country’s CPI in the coming months have been revised. For example, BIDV Securities Company has raised its CPI forecast from 3.3% to 3.6%, while Mirae Asset Securities has increased the forecast from 3.8% to 3.9%.
In early April, Standard Chartered stuck with its forecast that consumer prices would rise 4.2% in 2022 and 5.5% in 2023.
