Vietnam Curbs CPI Rise at 6.6 per cent in 2006; Three Year Record Low

 

This is the lowest rise in last three years, the GSO said, indicating that the CPI hovered by 9.5 per cent in 2004 and by 8.4 per cent in 2005.

 

The 6.6 per cent CPI rise in 2006 is lower than the initial estimation at 7 per cent forecast by the government’s market management group and much lower than the rate set by the National Assembly.

 

In December, except for the sharp rise of foods and foodstuff group, which expanded by 2.4 per cent on month, all other groups went up slightly by below 1 per cent. Particularly, costs of the telecoms and vehicle service group stayed unchanged, while the drinks and tobacco group fell 0.1 per cent from last month.

 

For the whole year, the food and foodstuffs group registered the highest consumer price increase at 7.9 per cent from 2005, followed by the other consumer goods and services group at 6.2 per cent. The culture, sport and entertainment group saw the lowest rise at 3.5 per cent on year.

 

The price of gold in December surged 3.2 per cent from November to lift the whole year to 27.2 per cent.

 

The US dollar was unchanged in December, its total rise 1 per cent from with December 2005.

 

Followings are details of each group:

 

 

In 2007, Vietnam’s National Assembly targets to curb the CPI rise below the economic growth, or below 8.2 per cent.