Customers choose goods at a supermarket in Nha Trang. Food price in April rose by 0.62 per cent month on month. — VNA/VNS Photo Tien Minh

The consumer price index (CPI) in April fell by 1.54 per cent over the previous month and by 1.21 per cent compared to December 2019, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported in Ha Noi on Wednesday.

However, the April CPI rose by 2.93 per cent year on year, the office said. The average CPI in the first four months of this year also increased by 4.9 per cent over the same period last year.

Do Thi Ngoc, head of CPI’s Price Statistic Department, said the CPI reduction in April was mainly due to strong decrease of petrol and gas prices as well as lower prices of many non-food products.

Six of the 11 groups of commodities and services used to calculate the CPI had a price decline in April. Of which, the transport group had the strongest reduction in price with 13.86 per cent, followed by the group of housing and building material with 2.33 per cent.

The domestic petrol and gas prices had strong reduction in April as the average Brent oil price for April was at US$27.69 per barrel, a decrease of 17.9 per month on month, the office said.

From March 25 until April 24, the prices were cut two times on March 29 and April 13 by VND4,880 per litre in total for A95 petrol, VND4,710 per litre for E5 bio-petrol and VND2,210 per litre for diesel oil month on month. Therefore, the average petrol price in April decreased by 28.48 per cent compared to the previous month.

The gas price in April also fell by 19.74 per cent compared to the previous month due to the domestic gas price reduction of VND69,000 per 12-kilo tank according to the world gas price.

Besides that, housing rent fell by 0.97 per cent month on month as many households reduced rent for their consumers to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, the GSO said. Prices of garments, headwear, footwear, home appliances, and entertainment and travel services plunged by between 0.5 per cent and 3 per cent due to lower demand on those products during the social distancing period.

However, some goods and service groups had price increases in April, including the group of food and catering services (0.66 per cent), the group of beverages and tobacco (0.13 per cent) and the group of equipment and home appliances (0.06 per cent).

Specifically, food and tapped water prices rose by 0.62 per cent and 0.31 per cent, respectively, because people consumed more of those products at home during the social distancing period, the office said. Of which, the price jumped by 1.62 per cent for pork, 0.55 per cent for beef, 1.48 per cent for eggs, 3.54 per cent for vegetables, 1.04 per cent for processed meat and 1.4 per cent for processed seafood.

Rice price increased by 2.51 per cent because of higher demand on domestic consumption and national reserves during the pandemic. In addition, the export rice price surged due to the increasing demand on importing rice of countries worldwide while the rice exporting countries reduced export rice volume.

Higher demand on medical equipment and medicine during the pandemic also pushed prices of those products up by 0.1-0.3 per cent over the previous month.

In April, the domestic market had strong growth in average gold price with 0.69 per cent to VND4.6 million per tael month on month because of the increase in the world gold price. The world price on April 24 was up by 6.74 per cent to $1.708.9 per ounce month on month.

Price of US dollar on the local market also rose by 0.95 per cent in April to VND23,315 per dollar compared to March.

During this month, CPI in rural areas decreased by 1.63 per cent month on month while it dropped by 1.45 per cent in urban areas, according to the GSO.

Rural areas had higher reduction in CPI than urban ones because the price decline rate of the transport group at 14.55 per cent in rural areas was higher than the rate of 13.2 per cent in urban areas, while the price growth rate at 0.48 per cent for food in rural areas was lower than the rate of 0.78 per cent in urban areas.

According to the GSO, core inflation (CPI excluding food items, energy products and commodities under the State management like medical and educational services) in April decreased by 0.15 per cent month on month but increased by 2.71 per cent year on year. The four-month core inflation climbed by 2.96 per cent from the same period of 2019. — VNS