CPI to rise 0.5% in sept; to hit 18% at year end

The consumer price index (CPI) this month is expected to increase 0.5 per cent against last month, but the estimated increase in the nation’s CPI for this year is still expected to be a substantial 18 per cent.

This month’s CPI increase will be lower than that of last month, according to the Market Watch Department.

The slowdown in the growth rate of CPI this month can be attributed to the trend of falling prices on the world market, with domestic importers benefiting from more stable import prices. This has also led to an increase in the supply of farming produce in the domestic market and a decrease in interest rates for loans for enterprises.

Price of essential goods, such as electricity, oil and petrol, are also predicted to avoid sharp increases.

However, there will be still many factors that push up CPI this month, including high demand for goods in the lead up to the busy retail season near the end of the year. Storms, outbreaks of disease and increases in wages and fees for health care services since this month will also have an effect.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment estimated that the nation’s CPI would increase 18 per cent this year.

Nguyen Duc Thang, head of Price Statistics Department in the General Statistics Office, said average growth rate of CPI reached 1.72 per cent per month this year, which was a strong growth rate.

Viet Nam’s CPI in September rose by 0.82 per cent against last month – the lowest single monthly increase since the beginning of the year – and 22.41 per cent over the same period in 2010.

The figure helped push the CPI in the first nine month of the year to 16.63 per cent, and up 18.16 per cent compared to the corresponding time last year, the GSO reported.

The figure of 16.63 per cent in the first nine months of this year was near the targeted CPI growth rate at 18 per cent for the whole year, said Thang. So, the CPI growth rate must be 0.75 per cent per month by the end of this year to not exceed the target.

It was a big challenge for management of the domestic market by the end of this year, he said. By this year’s end, prices of many products are set to increase, including air fare, public transport, electricity and fertiliser fees, causing a huge challenge to curbing inflation this year.

The Market Watch Department said that to curb inflation, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should boost efforts to prevent outbreaks of diseases among cattle and poultry to ensure supplies of food on the domestic market and have reasonable management for rice market to avoid price fever.

The team also required banks to ensure enough loans for fertiliser traders importing key products for rice crops by the year end.

Ministries and economic sectors would continue strictly implementing policy solutions on curbing inflation under Government’s Resolution 11, said the department.

Source VNS

Tags: Vietnam CPI 2011, Vietnam economic, Vietnam economic growth, Vietnam economy, Vietnam economy 2011