CPI rises less than expected
CPI rises less than expected
The country's consumer price index (CPI) in October rose only 0.49 per cent against last month, despite a number of factors that were expected to push the index higher.
This month's CPI was also much lower than the past few months. In September and August, CPI rose 1.06 per cent and 0.83 per cent, respectively.
CPI has increased by 5.14 per cent from December 2012 and by 5.92 per cent from October last year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
Director of the GSO's Pricing Department Nguyen Duc Thang said that CPI this month was lower than previous Octobers, when it traditionally starts a five-month upward curve.
Thang said that CPI was also under pressure from the seasonal capital injection.
October is often a time when capital construction funded by the State budget starts, Thang explained, adding that local producers, traders and importers also started to push production at this time in the lead up to Lunar New Year.
This month's CPI was also expected to be hit by unfavourable weather that restricted food supplies.
However, low demand in the local market helped restrict the CPI rise this month to only 0.49 per cent.
Due to the low demand, the prices of food and foodstuff in October increased by 0.86 per cent, despite the restricted supply.
Mirroring the same trend, the cost of housing and construction materials only rose 0.5 per cent, even though it was the start of the construction season.
According to the GSO, the cost of nine out of 11 goods used to calculate the CPI increased this month, with food and foodstuff rising the most.
The price of transport dropped by 0.17 per cent, while prices of postal services and telecommunications inched down 0.03 per cent.
In October, the CPI in urban areas posted slower growth compared with rural area, at 0.42 per cent compared to 0.54 per cent.
Not included in the CPI, gold prices lost 2.87 per cent month-on-month and US dollar prices edged down 0.18 per cent.
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