The price of food in April also increased 1.11 per cent, in the wake of rising rice demands to meet export contracts. — Photo vov

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The consumer price index in April rose 0.33 per cent against last month, following price hikes of many goods, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Compared with the same period last year, the index increased 1.89 per cent, the office reported.

Deputy director of GSO's Consumer Price Index Department Do Thi Ngoc said that the rise in April was lower than the rate of 0.57 and 0.42 per cent in February and March.

"The CPI exhibits normal trends. In the first months of the year, when the country's largest festival of Tet (Lunar New Year) falls in with high rising demands, the rising rate of the CPI is often higher," Ngoc said.

However, she noted, if compared with April of the past four years, the 0.33 per cent rise of this month was relatively high. In April of the past four years, the CPI index inched up only 0.02-0.14 per cent.

Ngoc attributed the rise to price hikes in eight out of 10 items used to calculate the CPI.

According to GSO, during this month, transport charges saw a month-on-month rise of 1.73 per cent due to two petrol price increases. The hike made up the 0.16 percentage points to the country's CPI index rise.

The price of food in April also increased 1.11 per cent, in the wake of rising rice demands to meet export contracts.

GSO reported the price of housing and construction materials rose 0.71 per cent due to steel price hikes, while gas prices increased 2.61 per cent in the wake of global world price hikes.

Also during the month, the CPI in the country's largest cities of HCM and Ha Noi increased 0.47 per cent and 0.32 per cent, respectively, the GSO reported.

Ngoc forecast that the CPI in the next few months would be stable as food prices would remain steady after rising in April due to rising global rice supplies, while rice importing countries, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, are ceasing their rice imports. — VNS