CPI climbs 1.52 percent in February

The consumer price index (CPI) in February this year jumped by 1.52 percent over the previous month, the highest increase of the index in February in the past eight years, and 1.58 percent compared to December last year.
According to experts of the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, some main reasons leading to the price hike in February are that Vietnam Electricity has ended its support program to lower power prices for customers; the prices of food, foodstuffs, eating out, and public transport services surged during the Lunar New Year.

However, in comparison with the same period last year, CPI in February this year merely inched up 0.7 percent - the lowest level from 2016 to now. CPI growth rates in February during the period from 2016 to 2021 are 1.27 percent, 5.02 percent, 3.15 percent, 2.64 percent, 5.4 percent, and 0.70 percent, respectively.

Core inflation in February this year increased by 0.48 percent over the previous month and 0.79 percent over the same period last year.

On average, in the first two months of this year, CPI slid 0.14 percent year-on-year, and core inflation edged up 0.64 percent.

Not included in the CPI basket, the domestic gold price moved inversely with the global gold price. The gold price index in February advanced by 0.25 percent over the previous month, 2.42 percent compared to December last year, and 25.08 percent year-on-year. The US dollar price index in February dropped by 0.17 percent compared to the previous month, 0.33 percent compared to December last year, and 0.76 percent year-on-year.

Other news