Vietnam Forecasts Inflation at 0.1 per cent in March; 3.7 per cent in First Quarter

Vietnam Forecasts Inflation at 0.1 per cent in March; 3.7 per cent in First Quarter

Vietnam's consumer price index (CPI) is predicted to post a much slower rise of around 0.1 per cent or remain unchanged in March after seeing a strong increase of 1.1 per cent in January and 2.5 per cent in February, according to the government’s Domestic Market Management Board.

Prices of some kinds of food and foodstuff, which account for 48 per cent of basket of commodities used in calculating CPI, are expected to gradually decrease after jumping during the traditional Lunar New Year festival (February 8-11), the board said.

Meanwhile, state bodies and local authorities have been applying measures to curb price hike of many other goods and services such as cement, electricity and steel, it also said.

The CPI, therefore, will be around 3.6-3.7 per cent in the first quarter, compared with a 4.9 per cent rise in the January-March period last year, which helped push up inflation to 9.5 per cent in 2004.

Vietnam’s parliament set to keep inflation below 6.5 per cent this year.

However, some local experts warned the country would likely have trouble reaching the target as Vietnam imports large volumes of many essential goods and thus heavily relies on the global market.

Vietnam currently has to import 100 per cent of its petrol products, 80 per cent of its steel ingots, 90 per cent of urea and 60 per cent of pharmaceutical products. Meanwhile international organizations have predicted the price of oil will remain high, and the prices of steel, chemicals and cements will likely go up.

Experts said if Vietnam can keep the consumer price index below 3.5 per cent in the first quarter, it could hit its target of 6.5 per cent for the whole year.
The People