CPI slightly increases in July

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Among the 11 main commodity groups, nine experienced price rises, including goods and other services with the highest rise of 0.94 percent; food and catering services (0.33 percent); education (0.22 percent); culture, entertainment and tourism (0.15 percent), beverage and tobacco (0.12 percent).

The prices of transportation; and housing, electricity, water and construction materials saw the same price drop of 0.03 percent.

Director of the GSO’s Price Statistics Department Do Thi Ngoc said the rise in July’s CPI was fuelled by high prices of food, especially pork which swelled 0.81 percent from the previous month.

In addition, the petrol price was up 0.04 percent compared to June, resulting in a 0.002 percent rise of the CPI of this good in July.

Meanwhile, the CPI of the health insurance group in July increased 6.67 percent month-on-month due to the increase of basic salary.

There was an increase in the tuition fees in some provinces and central-level cities under a Government Decree.

The VND/USD exchange rate in July decreased by 0.56 percent.

During the month, the domestic gold prices was around 3.97 million VND (171.06 USD) per tael, 4.78 percent higher than the previous month.

The GSO said core inflation (CPI exclusive of foodstuff, fresh food, energy, healthcare and education service) in July and the first seven months of 2019 respectively increased by 0.23 percent and 1.89 percent, compared to the same period last year.