CPI goes up 1.24% from early 2018

VGP – The consumption price index (CPI) saw a month-on-month growth of 0.73%; a year-on-year surge of 3.15%, and picked up 1.24% against last December, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported.

March 01, 2018 1:52 PM GMT+7

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In the first two months, CPI picked up 2.9% on average.

Among 11 goods and services categories, nine saw price increases, including food and catering services (1.53%); transportation (0.79%); beverages and cigarettes (0.75%); other goods and services (0.74%); culture, entertainment and tourism (0.72%).

On the contrary, housing, building materials, and telecom fees experienced declining prices of 0.09% and 0.07%, respectively.

The GSO attributed the CPI hike to strong demand for food, beverages, cigarettes and electricity use during the Tet and massive rice purchase for exports to Indonesia and the Philippines.

Other factors reined in CPI growth such as falling gas and vegetable prices with respective decreases of 5.14% and 1.72%.

The price of gold witnessed a month-on-month surge of 1.83%. Meanwhile, the price of US Dollar was stable.

Core inflation in February (CPI exclusive of fresh food, energy and State-run health and education services) moved up 0.49% month-on-month and 1.47% year-on-year. The index for the first two months this year rose by 1.32%, the GSO reported./.

By Khanh Phuong