January CPI remains moderate

People shop for food at Co.op Mart in HCM City. The nation's consumer price index rose 1.25 per cent in January over the previous month and 7.07 per cent over the same period last year. — VNA/VNS Photo Pham Hau

HA NOI (VNS)— The nation's consumer price index (CPI) increased 1.25 per cent this month over last month and was up 7.07 per cent over the same period last year, the General Statistics Office reported yesterday.

Nguyen Duc Thang, director of the office's Consumer Price Index Department, said that while January often sees high index expansion levels as shopping demand soars ahead of the Tet (lunar new year) holiday, this month's CPI only went up moderately.

He noted that it was lower than "January high levels" in the past few years, specifically 2.38 per cent in 2008, 1.36 per cent in 2010, and 1.74 per cent in 2011.

This month, medicine and healthcare service prices increased very high at 7.4 per cent as they were raised in many provinces following the ministries of Health and Finance's decisions. The price of healthcare services alone rose by up to 9.5 per cent.

But this contributed only 0.44 per cent to this month's general CPI upward move as these areas accounted for only about 5.6 per cent of the "goods basket" that is used for calculating the index.

The prices of food and restaurant services, which represent 40 per cent of the basket, went up 1.34 per cent, with demand for rice increasing sharply.

Garment and clothing services and household devices saw prices went up significantly, at 1.3 per cent and 0.54 per cent, respectively. More houses being built and repaired on this occasion pushed up housing and building material prices by 0.36 per cent.

In January, gold prices fell by 1.73 per cent over the previous month and US dollar prices slid slightly 0.08 per cent. — VNS