Stronger consumer demand during Tet drives up February CPI
Stronger consumer demand during Tet drives up February CPI
The country’s consumer price index (CPI) this month has grown by 0.8% against January, largely fueled by the high consumer demand during the Tet holiday, the local media reported, citing the General Statistics Office.
Nine out of 11 groups of items in the basket of commodities used for CPI calculation have risen in price.
Specifically, foodstuff, food and dining-out services have reported the highest price growth, 1.73%, leading to a 0.48% increase in the overall CPI.
Following this group is housing and construction materials, which have registered a 0.69% hike, triggered by an increase of 3.51% in the gas price and 0.69% in the electricity price.
Although the prices of public transport services are up 4.4%, the transport group has witnessed a slight increase of 0.16% thanks to the stable fuel price during Tet.
In addition, the culture, entertainment and tourism group has posted an increase of 0.66%; other goods and services, 0.47%; beverages and tobacco, 0.35%; and household appliances, 0.26%.
Meanwhile, the education and post and telecommunications groups saw price declines this month, of 0.47% and 0.03%, respectively.
This month’s core inflation, which excludes prices of fresh food, energy and State-controlled services, such as healthcare and education, has inched up by 0.48% month-on-month and 1.82% year-on-year, leading the core inflation growth in the first two months of the year of 1.82%.
