The Education Publishing House has raised its textbook prices by an average of 16.9% in 2011.

Nguyen Minh Khang, Vice General Director of the publishing house, said, “Since late 2010, prices of all commodities have increased. Particularly, paper has risen by 30%, and transport costs have doubled. Printing houses have also raised their fees for further contracts.”

The price hikes have been appraised by the Ministry of Finance and approved by the prime minister. Khang, however, added that the rise is still too low to cover the higher production costs.

The Education Publishing House has adjusted prices of 193 textbook titles printed in 2011 for grades 1 to 12.

According to Khang, the Education Publishing House will publish around 80 million textbooks this year.

Last year, its gross revenue was VND522 billion (USD25.21 million), which amounted to a net loss of VND100 billion (USD4.83 million).