The Government of Vietnam will find it more difficult in curbing inflation in the remaining months of this year due to gasoline price hikes, said Nguyen Bich Lam, deputy head of the General Statistics Office (GSO).
&ldquoThe increase of gasoline prices by more than 30 per cent will certainly have strong impacts on CPI in coming months,&rdquo Lam said in an interview with the Vietnam Economic Times July 22.
The petroleum hikes will directly push up prices transport service and fuel sectors, and indirectly drive up prices of foods, foodstuffs and construction materials.
The increase of essential goods will then spread to other products for a long period.
&ldquoI think the fuel price hike will have the biggest impacts on the Government&rsquos anti-inflation efforts,&rdquo he said. &ldquoThe Government has gone the right track with interest rate tools and monetary policies to curb inflation, but the task is now more difficult.&rdquo
Minister of Finance Vu Van Ninh said the fuel hike will add by 0.5-0.7 percentage points to the CPI rise in August, but &ldquoI don&rsquot know why the ministry make such a fore,&rdquo Lam said.
The increase of gasoline prices this time will great effects on consumer prices, which also deteriorates the current downward CPI tr, he said.
Based on figures calculated by July 15, the GSO estimated that the CPI will fall significantly in July from June, he said.
&ldquoWe can expect the CPI in July will much lower than the 2.14 per cent rise in June.&rdquo
The GSO has ever fore that the CPI rise would be 24 per cent or 25 per cent this year.
&rdquoAs of July, signals show that the situations remain positive and we can totally hope the fore will come true,&rdquo Lam said.
&ldquoHowever, the gasoline price hike will make it very difficult to reach this target.&rdquo
The government must have drastic measures to curb prices of essential products and control market. Businesses must share the government&rsquos burden in fighting inflation. (VnEconomy, Economy and Urban)
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