HANOI: The consumer price index (CPI) in May rose 0.54 per cent over the last month, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported yesterday. The figure represents a year-on-year increase of 2.28 per cent, the GSO said, adding that the CPI in the first five months of this year surged by 1.59 per cent on an annual basis.
Among the 11 groups of products and services, transportation services posted the highest growth in May of 2.39 per cent, mainly driven by the price hike of petrol and oil, which was adjusted on April 20 and May 5. Increases were seen in building materials (0.88 per cent); restaurant and catering services (0.36 per cent); cultural, entertainment and tourism services (0.34 per cent); beverages and tobacco (0.11 per cent); and household appliances (0.09 per cent).
Deputy head of the GSO’s Price Statistics Department, Đỗ Thị Ngọc, said the May CPI rise was attributed to the price hike in food due to the drought and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta and mass fish deaths in the central region. Demand for food was also higher than the previous month because of the long holiday in the beginning of May.
That the demand for travel surged in the holiday also made price of domestic tours higher, up 1.11 per cent, and the price of tours abroad increased 1.01 per cent, while hotel prices went up 0.53 per cent. The price of health insurance services hiked 4.72 per cent as the State rose the minimum wage from VNĐ1.15 million per month to VNĐ1.21 million per month from May 1.
The Thời báo Kinh doanh (Business Times) quoted Nguyễn Đức Độ, deputy head of the Institute of Economics and Finance, as saying that this year’s inflation would be lower because the increase of the index in the past months was mainly due to the adjustment of health care service prices. Therefore, if excluding the factor of price adjustment, inflation would be maintained at a low level, he added.
