Customers buy food at a Vinmart outlet in Ha Noi. Viet Nam's consumer price index rose 0.11 per cent in October. — VNS Photo Doan Tung

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam's consumer price index (CPI) in October inched up 0.11 per cent from September, the same as last year's corresponding period, the General Statistics Office (GSO) announced on Saturday.

The figure pushed the 10-month CPI to 0.67 per cent on an annual basis.

Of 11 goods and services categories, seven posted moderate price increases, including food and restaurant services (0.19 per cent), beverages and cigarettes (0.11 per cent), garment, headwear and footwear (0.2 per cent), and household appliances (0.12 per cent), in addition to medicines and medical services (0.01 per cent), education (0.05 per cent), and other goods and services (0.1 per cent).

Falling prices were recorded in post and telecommunications (0.03 per cent), housing and construction materials (0.01 per cent), transport (0.05 per cent), and culture, entertainment, and tourism (0.06 per cent).

Particularly, in the housing and construction material sector, construction steel prices hit a low as Chinese steel began flooding the local market. In September alone, 6.7 million tonnes of steel was imported into Viet Nam or a year-on-year increase of 80 per cent.

In addition, the Ministry of Transport still requires transport firms to continue slashing their transport fee in line with the decrease in petrol prices, especially taxi fares.

The October CPI growth has been due to stronger demand for food during the wedding season, falling supply of vegetables due to the rain earlier this month, requirement for fall-winter apparel and footwear, and higher water costs in Ha Noi and the northern provinces of Lao Cai and Nam Dinh, Deputy Director of the GSO's Price Statistics Department Do Thi Ngoc said.

Drop in prices of rice, construction materials and steel also curbed the index. Transport costs went down 1.76 per cent on lower fuel prices.

The prices of gold and the US dollar declined slightly to hover at VND34 million per tael and VND22,457 per US dollar, respectively.

Also according to the GSO, the core October inflation, which excludes the costs of fresh food, energy, health and education services, picked up 0.06 per cent month-on-month and 1.82 per cent year-on-year.

The 10-month core inflation rose 2.12 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Ngoc forecast that the November CPI will move up slightly, with prices in almost categories remaining stable. — VNS