CPI growth in Q1 lowest in three years

The General Statistics Office (GSO) stated in its latest socioeconomic performance report released on March 29 that lower prices in seven of the 11 groups of consumer goods and services helped drag down the CPI in March by 0.21% from one month earlier.

As a result, the CPI in March was 0.69% higher than in December last year and represented a year-on-year rise of 2.7%.

This month’s core inflation, which excludes the prices of fresh food, energy and State-controlled healthcare and education services, dropped 0.06% against February, but still rose 1.84% from the same period last year.

Further, core inflation between January and March climbed 1.83% against the same period in 2018.

The largest drag on the March CPI was the group of essential goods and catering services. This most-weighted group declined by a sharp 1.42% – of which foodstuff, food and dining-out services fell by 0.55%, 1.97% and 0.48%, respectively – resulting in a 0.51% decrease in the overall CPI. Notably, pork prices suffered a month-on-month drop of 5.3%.

The other six groups, namely household equipment and utensils; postal and telecom services; beverages and tobacco; culture, entertainment and education; garment, headwear and footwear; as well as other goods and services, registered slight decreases, ranging from 0.03% to 0.17%.

Meanwhile, the transport group witnessed the highest growth of 2.22% due to the upward fuel price adjustment on March 2, leading to a 0.23% rise in the overall CPI.

Housing fees and construction materials came in second, with a 0.78% increase as cooking gas prices rose 4.88%. Following this group were medicine and healthcare services (0.03%), and education (0.01%).

Do Thi Ngoc, head of the GSO’s Price Statistics Department, was quoted by the Vietnam News Agency as saying that consumer demand surged in January and February in anticipation of the Tet holiday, hence raising food prices. Prices of public transport services also increased as a result of soaring travel demand during the long holiday.

Additionally, global prices of essential commodities, such as fuel and steel, rebounded, leading to higher import, export, industrial production and agricultural production cost indexes in the quarter.

Meanwhile, some factors curbing the CPI growth included lower consumer demand after the Tet holiday, the impact of the African swine fever epidemic in over 20 localities, and downward adjustments in petrol and gas prices during the period, she noted.