HÀ NỘI — The nation’s consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.46 per cent in the first month of this year, the highest month-on-month increase recorded over the two years, the General Statistics Office (GSO) announced yesterday.

The January’s CPI also experienced a year-on-year rise of 5.22 per cent, much higher than 1-per-cent growth seen in same period last year, GSO said.  

Đỗ Thị Ngọc, deputy head of GSO’s Price Statistics Department, attributed the index’s significant increase to three rises in the petrol prices in December 20, 2016, January 4 and January 19, 2017 and high consumption demand for the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday which fell in January.

The prices of 9 among 11 major groups of goods and services increased in January. Transport witnessed the highest growth at 3.2 per cent, followed by pharmaceuticals and healthcare service at 1.01 per cent, beverage and tobacco at 0.78 per cent and education at 0.5 per cent.

Prices also surged by 0.6 per cent for housing and building materials as the cost of cooking gas rose by about 8 per cent since January 1 and local people had tendency to repair their houses to celebrate the nation’s biggest festival.

Meanwhile, a downturn was seen in food and catering service and post and telecommunications with 0.24 per cent and 0.15 per cent, respectively.

In January, domestic prices of gold and dollars decreased by 0.18 per cent and 0.07 per cent year-on-year, respectively while the exchange rate was stable at about VNĐ22,900 per US dollar.

The GSO reported that core inflation (CPI excluding food, fresh foodstuff, energy and State-owned products such as healthcare services and education) in the month rose 0.28 per cent over the previous month and 1.88 per cent year on year, which reflected the stability of the monetary policy. It also forecasts that February’s CPI will continue rising as the prices of food, foodstuff, entertainment, and catering services go up during the festive first lunar month. — VNS