May CPI: HCM City up 0.48pct, Hanoi rises 0.41pct

Hanoi’s consumer price index (CPI) in May posted a slight rise of 0.41 percent from previous month but increased up to 9.62 percent against the same period last year and up 4.9 percent over last December, reported Hanoi Statistic Department.

In the goods basket in May, two groups saw a slight fall of 0.05-0.17 percent in CPI including culture-sports-entertainment and post and telecommunication whereas the CPI of nine remaining groups increased less than 1 percent from last month (housing, electricity and water and fuel) and construction materials was up 1.77 percent m-o-m.

Also in May, the gold market witnessed many changes with a rise of 1.86 percent m-o-m but fell 3.26 percent from last December. The gold prices sometime jumped to over 28 million dong per tael
Conversely, the FX rate fell 1.1 percent over last month but increased 2.27 percent compared to December 2009.

Similarly, HCM City’s CPI in May also reported a rise of 0.48 percent against the previous month but climbed 9.82 percent over the same period last year and jumped 4.51 percent from last December, according to Du Quang Nam, head of HCM City Statistic Bureau.

Real estate, electricity and water supply, fuel and construction lead the price rise at a rate of 1.7 percent.

Most of essential household appliances saw price increase such as household utensils with prices up by 0.48 percent, followed by food and catering services by 0.42 percent and apparels and footwear by 0.31 percent.

Cigarette was among a few items which saw decline in prices by 0.13 percent.

Supper markets and trade centres enjoyed a sharp surge in retail revenues, largely attributable to their huge promotion offers and a long holiday in celebrations of April 30 and May 1, which pushed up the purchasing power.

The retail prices of staples continued to fall by 0.39 percent as the winter-spring harvest has just finished.

Good news came from rice exporters who said they were exporting the grain at $466 per tonne, representing an increase of $60 per tonne year-on-year and $16 above the average bidding price won by other regional rice exporters.

Food prices rebounded in May with a rise of 0.69 percent after a slight drop of 0.23 percent in April.

Among the items which saw price hikes was uncooked poultry meat up by 0.43 percent, processed meat up by 0.40 percent, eggs by 0.60 percent, fresh seafood by 1.35 percent, bean up 1.3 percent, vegetables 1.93 percent and spice up 0.52 percent.

The group of housing, electricity, water and construction materials was up by 1.7 percent. Of which, the price of construction steel increased by 6-7 percent month on month.

Gold price rose by 1.93 percent in prices over the previous month while the US dollar price fell by 1.07 percent in value against the dong.

Vietstock

Tags: Vietnam CPI, Vietnam economic, Vietnam economy