>> CPI soars in Vietnam’s two biggest cities
>> State Bank of Vietnam to lower interest rates if CPI up 1.4 per cent
Vietnam’s consumer price index (CPI) in February is estimated to have increased by 2.09% from January, the highest monthly increase over the past 30 months.
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According to the General Statistics Office, the figure represents a rise of 12.31% from a year earlier, and an increase of 3.87% compared to December of 2010.
For goods and services, 10 out of 11 categories saw price increases this month, excluding post and telecom services, which dropped by 0.01% over the last month.
Prices of food and services posted the largest average increase this month of 3.65%.
These high increases were closely followed by the those of beverages and cigarettes, which saw a hike of 2.14%. Apparel rose by 1.38%, tourism by 1.24%, and transportation by 1.01%.
Although gold prices fell by 0.35% since this January, the prices in the first two months of the year remain 35.02% higher than same time last year.
Also, as a result of the Vietnamese currency devaluation, the USD rose 0.94% against the VND from last month. During the January-February period, the average VND/USD exchange rate is 9.78% higher than a year earlier.
In February, Hanoi saw an overall CPI rise of 1.98% since January, and in Ho Chi Minh City it was 1.61%.
Experts attributed the high CPI this month to high demand during the Lunar New Year.
The Vietnamese National Assembly has set a goal to keep inflation under 7% this year.