Vietnam inflation held steady in May
(VOV) - Vietnam’s May consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.2% over April and 4.72% from a year ago, the General Statistics Office (GSO) announced on May 24.
Nguyen Duc Thang, a senior GSO official, said the CPI for May edged up slightly due to relatively stable prices of essential products globally and a sufficient supply of food and foodstuff.
Notably, 10 out of the 11 consumer goods and services in the CPI basket registered price hikes during the month, ranging from 0.01% to 0.43%.
The highest rise of 0.43% was recorded in the housing and construction materials group which comes on the back of the central bank’s recent launch of a preferential credit package for the property market.
The educational group experienced the lowest rise of an inconsequential 0.01% while post and telecommunications services posted a decrease of 0.03% attributable to increased competition in the market.
The GSO reported that the recent hot weather put inflationary pressure on a number of products including some foodstuff, beverages, garment and textiles.
Meanwhile, HCM City’s CPI inched up modestly registering an uptick of 0.36% over the previous month. Some commodities that saw a rise in the price include meat (up 2.54%), processed seafood (up 1.05%), vegetables (up 6.71%), and fruits (up 2.56%).
Domestic gold prices continued to drop by 0.85% in May, in line with the overall world downward trend, while the US dollar also experienced a slight decrease of 0.04%.