The CPI in February rose by 0.42 per cent against the previous month due to high demand of goods and services for the Tet holidays. — VNS Photo Doan Tung

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam saw the lowest growth in the consumer price index (CPI) since February 2003, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The office reported yesterday that the CPI in February rose by 0.42 per cent against the previous month due to high demand of goods and services for the Tet holidays. However, the growth rate was the lowest level since 2003, excluding the reduction of CPI at 0.05 per cent in February 2015.

The CPI of this month had a year-on-year increase of 1.27 per cent, it said.

Do Thi Ngoc, deputy head of GSO's Consumer Price Index Department, said the increase of CPI this month was partly due to the high demand on local consumption for the Tet holidays and export processing by rice exporting enterprises.

Therefore, the price of rice this month on the local market rose by 0.66 per cent, and the prices for the group of restaurant and catering services surged by the highest rate of 1.98 per cent, compared with the same period last year, she said.

Higher price of fresh food and lower supply of vegetable also affected to the increase of national CPI. The price increased by 0.2 per cent to 0.4 per cent for pork, beef and seafood products while the price of vegetables was higher in the north of Viet Nam because of lower supply and higher demand during bad weather.

Increase in demand of consumer goods for the Tet holidays pushed up the price of apparel, footwear, beverages and tobacco between 0.2 per cent and 2 per cent.

Price of public transport services increased by 3.45 per cent month-on-month, the GSO said. But price for the group of transport services reduced by 3.96 per cent month-on-month from the impact of plunging petrol and oil prices.

Other groups which saw a fall in prices in February included the group of housing and building material down 0.41 per cent and postal and telecom services down 0.16 per cent.

The price of gold this month had a growth of 3.02 per cent month-on-month but reduced 5.42 per cent year-on-year while the price of US dollar fell by 0.64 per cent month-on-month but increased 4.82 per cent year-on-year, the GSO said. — VNS