HÀ NỘI — The national consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.8 per cent in February, the General Statistics Office announced on Thursday, marking the biggest February increase since 2014.

The average CPI in the first two months of this year was 2.6 per cent higher than in the same period last year.

February CPI increased by 0.9 per cent from December 2018 and 2.64 per cent year on year.

The CPI of nine out of 11 groups of goods and services increased against those in January, mainly due to increased consumer demand during the Lunar New Year (Tết) festival, the office said.

The food and catering services group showed a large jump of 1.73 per cent. Processed food prices were up by 0.53 per cent and meat prices rose by between 1 and 5 per cent.

Housing and construction materials had a growth rate of 0.69 per cent month on month.

Gas prices rose 3.51 per cent. The surge contributed 0.04 percentage points to the 0.9 per cent CPI increase. Electricity prices were up 0.69 per cent.

Culture, entertainment and tourism activities saw prices rise 0.66 per cent, drinks and cigarettes prices were up 0.35 per cent, and equipment and household appliance prices were up 0.26 per cent.

The price of public transport services rose 4.4 per cent on a surge of 7.39 per cent in prices of tickets to travel in passenger cars due to the high demand in travel by this method during the Tết holiday. Train ticket prices were up 15.84 per cent. Meanwhile, the price of the non-public transportation group only increased slightly by 0.16 per cent as oil and petrol prices were kept mostly level by the price stabilisation programme over Tết.

Other groups also had slight increases in price during the second month of this year, including garment, hat and footwear products (up 0.14 per cent) and pharmaceutical products and medical services (up 0.01 per cent).

Meanwhile, prices in the education group dropped by 0.47 per cent. The price of education services decreased by 0.55 per cent due to HCM City’s reduction in tuition fees. 

In February, the gold price index increased by 1.53 per cent compared to the previous month but was down 0.16 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The US dollar price index decreased by 0.09 per cent compared to the previous month but increased 2.24 per cent year on year.

According to the GSO, core inflation in February increased by 0.48 per cent month on month. The general inflation had a higher increase than core inflation, showing that price fluctuations were mainly due to the increase in food prices.

Core inflation in the first two months of this year was 1.82 per cent from the same period last year, reflecting stability in management of monetary policy. — VNS