Vietnam August CPI falls to 11 mont low at 0.93%

Vietnam consumer price index in August is estimated to slow down to 0.93% from July, the lowest level since September 2010, the General Statistics Office said on its website.

August increase led the figure to have risen by 15.68% from December, 23.02% on year and on average, CPI in the first 8 months of this year was up 17.64% from that of last year. The figures are based on data for the first 23 days of the month.

As many as 10 out of the 11 baskets of goods contributed to the calculation of the CPI data saw their prices rise this month. Only costs of post and telecom services continued to decrease by 0.06%.

Food and restaurants service costs saw the biggest increase of 1.35% on month, of which the prices of food and food stuffs rose 0.46% and 1.55% on month respectively while restaurant service cost rose 1.59% on month.

Prices of education saw second highest increase in the month of 1.13% as new school year is approaching, followed by prices of other goods and services rising 1.01%.

House and construction materials prices jumped 0.89% on month, garment and footwear staples prices rose 0.79% in the month.

Prices of drinks and cigarettes rose 0.55%, transportation edged up 0.21%, household facilities and furniture up 0.51%, medicine and healthcare services 0.25%, recreation & tourism up 0.34% and

Gold prices surged 8.7% on month in August, 15.33% in the first 8 months and rose by 47.63% on year as a result of global price hike and local gold hoarding.

U.S. dollar prices also jumped 0.26% on-month, up 0.32% from in the first 8 months and 8.64% on-year.

There was a big gap between CPI in the two biggest cities in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City posted 0.68% CPI increase while Hanoi saw it rose by 1.06%

August CPI came out in line with expectation of under 1% by some local analysts who say Vietnam CPI is likely to see lowest MoM increase in August.

Vietnam adjusted its targets to curb inflation at 17% this year, credit growth below 20 % this year. – Stoxplus.com

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