The Vietnamese General Statistics Office (GSO) said the consumer price index (CPI) in February 2010 climbed 1.96 percent from the previous month, the highest monthly rise since July of 2008.
The price index rose 3.35 percent from December 2009 and 8.46 percent from the same period of last year.
In the CPI basket with 11 groups of goods and services, the group of food, foodstuff and eating-out took the lead with 3.09 percent from the previous month. This group accounts for nearly 40 percent of basket.
The soaring New Year demand is attributed to the hike of this group. Particularly, food price added 2.94 percent; foodstuff 3.46 percent; and eating-out 2.06 percent.
The group of beverage and tobacco augmented 2.27 percent; Garments, footwear and headwear 1.39 percent; and Culture, sport and leisure 1.22 percent. The group of other consumer goods and services jumped 2.52 percent in price, mainly contributed by hairstyling and nailing.
The price hike of petroleum products on January 14 together with surging travelling demand pushed up the price of transport group by 1.45 percent. Fuelled up by LPG and steel price rise, the group of housing and construction materials advanced 1.75 percent from January.
New Year promotion programmes help the price of post and telecom group decline 1.23 percent from January.
Gold price index slid 2.03 percent in February from a month earlier while the USD price index gained 0.33 percent.
As the CPI calculation is closed on February 10, the March CPI will be added a part of New Year holiday.
Together with the another gasoline price rise from February 21 and power price hike from March, prices of food, foodstuff, eating-out, transport, culture, leisure, tourism, housing and construction materials will continue to climb in the upcoming month.
P.V
Vietnamese
