October Consumer Prices Remain Unchanged

October Consumer Prices Remain Unchanged

Vietnam's consumer price index (CPI) remained unchanged in October against September after rising to 8.6 per cent in the January-September period. The CPI this month, however, was 10.3 per cent higher than the same period last year.

Prices of housing-construction materials, home appliances, education services, garments-footwear and pharmaceuticals continued to rise slightly by 0.5 per cent, 0.4 per cent, 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent.

Nevertheless, the price of food and foodstuff, which account for 47 per cent of the basket of commodities used in calculating CPI, decreased by 0.2 per cent after jumping up 15 per cent in the January-September period. Meanwhile, prices in the group of culture, sports and entertainment services continued to go down by 0.4 per cent in October, but are still 2.1 per cent higher than at the end of 2003.

• P.V