Vietnam - CPI rebounds on higher fuel prices and medical fees

After two consecutive months of falling, the consumer price index (CPI) this month has bounced back, at 0.63% month-on-month as recorded by the General Statistics Office, due to higher prices of fuel and healthcare services.

Statistics announced by the office indicate nine out of the 11 groups of commodities used for CPI calculation have picked up from the previous month while the remainder has slightly decreased, contributing to the average index rise.

Among the two commodity groups with price decreases this month, food and catering services slipped 0.18%, with food and foodstuff falling 0.43% and 0.27% respectively against last month. Catering services, however, marked up 0.35%.

Meanwhile, the group of medicine and healthcare services recorded the sharpest price rise of 5.44% and 7.71% respectively, followed by the group of housing, building materials, power, water and gas with 2.03%.

Similarly, the group of transport services experienced a rise of 1.07% given the recent fuel price hikes.

The remainder, including textile and apparel products, footwear, household appliances, education, entertainment and tourism and other commodities and services all jumped less than 1%, at 0.57%, 0.35%, 0.48%, 0.95% and 0.42% respectively.

In general, the eight-month CPI rose 2.86% versus end-2011, and was up 5.04% year-on-year.

As such, the index has bounced back after declining over the past two months but the point is local purchasing power has yet to be recovered as well as expected.

Representatives of many retailers and companies confirmed that local demands for non-essential goods this month were higher than in July but the improvement was still modest.

The General Statistics Office reported CPI has gone up 0.71% in urban areas, higher than the 0.61% in rural areas. All localities in the country posted CPI rise this month.

Saigon Times

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