Vietnam's consumer price index (CPI) in August is estimated to soar 0.4 per cent from last month and 7.5 per cent from a year earlier, reported the General Statistics Office (GSO).
This month’s CPI rise, which is the same as the rate seen in July and June, brings the inflation rate in the first eight months of this year to 4.8 per cent.
The prices of food and drink services, which make up 42.8 per cent of the CPI basket, is estimated to increase by 0.2 per cent from July and 8.4 per cent from last July. It registered the rise of 5.6 per cent so far this year.
The housing and construction materials costs recorded the highest growth among ten commodity groups used to calculate the CPI, at 1.1 per cent on-month and 9.6 per cent on-year. It rose 5.2 per cent from the beginning of this year.
Despite the 0.2 per cent fall in post and telecoms service costs, the prices of transport and postal services still saw the remarkable rise of 0.9 per cent from July and 7.9 per cent from a year earlier.
Costs of other groups increased more slowly, such as garments and footwear were up 6.1 per cent on year, equipments 5.9 per cent, household appliances 5.5 per cent, medical and healthcare services 4.9 per cent, education 3.7 per cent and cultural-sport-recreational services 3 per cent.
During August, the urban areas saw the CPI up 0.5 per cent on-month and 8.1 per cent on year, while the rural areas witnessed the increase of 0.3 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively.
Both the northwestern and southeastern regions saw the highest CPI rise at 0.5 per cent on month, while the Mekong Delta region saw lowest rise of 0.2 per cent.
Among localities, both Hanoi and Haiphong had the fastest CPI surge of 0.7 per cent, while Thai Nguyen and Tien Giang saw smallest growth of 0.1 per cent.
The price of gold surged 2.3 per cent from July, 28.6 per cent from the end of 2005 and 47.6 per cent over the same period last year.
The US dollar inched up 0.1 per cent over last month, 0.5 per cent from last December and 0.8 per cent from last August, against the Vietnamese currency.
This year, Vietnam targets to curb the index increase at 6-7 per cent, compared with the increase of 8.4 per cent last year. (GSO Jul 2006)
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