The price of imported products or input materials such as automobiles, motorbikes, computers, computer components, cameras, steel and milk have been adjusted.

Automobile is the first product seeing the price rise. Several days after the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s decision to increase inter-bank exchange rates, Toyota Vietnam has announced a new price list with the level rising from 16-64 million/vehicle.

The prices of several imported scooters such as Piagio, SH, Spacy at motorbike shops in Hanoi increase by from VND500,000-3million/vehicle and those of computers and computer components by 10 percent on average.

The prices of consumer goods such as gas, food, cosmetics and milk are on the rise.

Representatives from a number of supermarkets in Hanoi said that some 50 suppliers are to increase the price level by 2-10 percent. However, the price of products at major supermarkets such as Big C or Metro remains unchanged.

Deputy Director of Big C Supermarket Nguyen Thai Dung said that there is no need to increase prices because these big supermarkets have large volumes of goods in stock.

According to some economic experts, the price hikes for imported products has also helped locally made products to corner the domestic market.

Meanwhile, food in HCM City such as seafood products, fruits and vegetables, rice and sugar also see price rises. For example, rice imported from Thailand soars by VND1,500-3,000/kg, sugar by VND15,000-17,000/kg, fish of different kinds by VND7,000-15,000/kg.

Chu Xuan Phuong from the Market Management Department attributed the increase in market prices to the impact of the strengthening the US dollar and the rising price of petroleum. The increase in rice price is due to the rising numbers of orders for rice exports,  Phuong added.

Many supermarkets have prepared sufficient supplies of goods and money to stabilize six essential goods including sticky rice, vegetable oil, meat, fruits and vegetables to meet people’s needs for the Lunar New Year festival. However, due to fluctuations in the US dollar, the prices of food and foodstuff have begun to rise by 5-15 percent.