HCMC – Vietnam’s consumer price index (CPI) this month has fallen 0.2% month-on-month, mainly attributed to a decrease in demand for stocking up on consumer products among residents. This came about as mobility restrictions were relaxed nationwide, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported on Friday, October 29.
However, GSO added that CPI in October rose 1.67% against the figure in December last year.
Nguyen Thu Oanh, director of the GSO’s Price Statistics Department, pointed out some factors affecting this month’s CPI. She stated that as the latest Covid outbreak in the country has been brought under control, many localities nationwide have eased mobility restrictions, thus facilitating the circulation of goods. Accordingly, the demand among local people for stocking up on goods has declined. She added that the supplies of goods in the local market also became adequate, leading to a fall in food and foodstuff prices.
Besides this, the demand for electricity and water to serve daily activities also fell as cooler weather arrived. House rental rates also continued the downward trend in urban areas due to the impact of the pandemic, she said.
Among the 11 groups of consumer goods and services in the basket of items used to calculate the CPI, eight groups marked an increase in prices, and three registered a decline against last month.
Specifically, food and catering services shed 1.28% versus the previous month. The decrease was attributed to abundant supplies that led to declines of 0.25% and 9.38% in the rice and pork prices, respectively.
Housing and construction materials also recorded a fall of 0.26%, while the post and telecommunications group slid 0.06%.
In contrast, of the eight groups that saw rising prices last month, the transport group recorded the highest increase of 2.51%, due to the impact of the upward fuel price adjustments on September 25, October 11 and October 26 in the local market.
Education services reported a rise of 0.25%, followed by household equipment and appliances with an increase of 0.06%; cultural, entertainment and tourism services with an 0.01% rise; medicines and medical services with an 0.02% pickup, among others.
According to the GSO official, core inflation this month contracted 0.17% month-on-month and improved 0.5% against the same period last year. In the January-October period, core inflation rose 0.84% versus the year-ago figure.
