Vietnam's consumer price index (CPI), a gauge of inflation, saw an increase by 0.8% in February against the previous month, and up 2.64% year-on-year, as consumers increase purchases ahead of Tet, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
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Nine out of 11 commodity groups, which are components of the basket for CPI calculation, witnessed monthly hikes in prices, of which, food and catering services posted the highest increase of 1.73%, leading to an overall CPI growth of 0.48%, mainly due to high consumption demand in Tet holidays.
Prices of other groups also picked up such as housing, water and electricity supply, and construction materials (0.69%); culture, entertainment, and tourism (0.66%); beverages and cigarettes (0.35%); household equipment and appliances (0.26%); transportation (0.16%); garment, footwear and hat group (0.14%); medicine and healthcare services (0.01%); goods and other services (0.47%).
Overall, the CPI expanded 2.6% year-on-year on average in the first two months, against the government target of 4%.
According to the GSO, core inflation in February picked up 0.48% month-on-month, resulting in an increase of 1.82% year-on-year on average in the January - February period.
This led to an increase of 1.82% in the core inflation rate in the first two months compared to the same period of 2018.
In 2018, the CPI increased by 3.54% against 2017, below the target of 4% set by the National Assembly.
Bao Viet Securities Company in its latest report predicted the inflation to fluctuate at around 3.5% in 2019, leading to unchanged interest rates compared to 2018.
