Ministry forecasts food price hikes next month

Prices for some essential goods will increase slightly next month, forecasts the Finance Ministry’s Price Management Department.

The increase will stem partly from the high demand for temporary stock as the Lunar New Year approaches, it says.

Floods anticipated during next month’s wet season will also push prices for food and other essential goods higher in central and southern Viet Nam.

The department expects the price for beef, poultry and fish to continue high but the price of pork to continue to fall because of blue-ear disease.

The department says the higher world price for pig iron means steel will cost more next month but over supply will keep the price of cement stable.

It intends to keep the price for electricity, cement, paper and fertiliser stable next month to ensure the yearly rise in the consumer price index (CPI) remains below ten.

The department will also promote management of the domestic market, price control and monitor compliance with price and tax requirements.

The CPI soared 1.31 per cent in September against August – threefold higher than the General Statistics Office had forecast.

The price of imported goods sold in supermarkets has risen since early September because of an increase in the US-dollar exchange rate, according to the director of the Maximark Cong Hoa supermarket Phuong Thao.

Most suppliers proposed raising prices in August and officially adjusted them in early September.

In HCM City supermarkets, the price for beverages, including soft drinks, fruit juice and wine, has risen by 5-10 per cent, canned food by 10 per cent, and confectionary by 7-9 per cent.

To welcome the Sales Promotion Month launched by HCM City’s Department of Industry and Trade, supermarkets have offered gifts to customers who have made purchases.

According to the department’s figures, the price of rice rose slightly by VND500-1,000 per kg and the price of poultry has jumped by VND5,000-10,000 per kg.

At the Ha Noi Big C supermarket, some fresh foodstuff items in the past two weeks such as chicken and fish have gone up by VND3,300 and VND700 per kg, respectively.

Nguyen Thai Dung, deputy director of Big C supermarket, said the supermarket and suppliers had agreed to not increase prices for essential commodities from now to the year-end.

According to the small traders in the Dong Xuan market, the price of field mushrooms has increased to VND180,000-260,000 ($9.47-$13.6) per kg.

Dried bamboo shoots are priced at VND80,000-VND150,000 ($4.2-7.8)because of the fluctuation in the US dollar and gold exchange rates.

The chairman of the Ha Noi Supermarket Association, Vu Vinh Phu,ù said that in the near future 300 items such as confectionary and cooking oil in supermarkets and trade centres would increase by 3-8 per cent, cosmetics by 5-8 per cent and milk products 8 per cent. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam food prices