City’s CPI up 1pct this month

February 25, 2013 | 08:59

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HCMC’s consumer price index (CPI) this month is forecast to rise 1pct month-on-month as steep demand during the Tet holiday drove up prices, according to the HCMC Statistics Department.

Ten of the 11 groups of goods have marked up while there is only one group having prices unchanged from last month.

According to the department, the highest price increase of 3.34pct belongs to the beverage-tobacco group.

Meanwhile, the group of food and catering services which accounts for 40pct of the basket of goods used to calculate the CPI inches up 1.42pct from January, with food products rising 2.56pct, dining out 0.53pct and foodstuffs down 0.09pct.

During Tet, prices of products favored by consumers are up strongly such as high-quality beef which sold for VND300,000-320,000 for kg, VND500,000 for a kg of grade-one shrimp and VND150-180,000 for a kg of chicken.

The price surge in the transport group is also high with 1.35pct due to the high transport costs during Tet and the road maintenance fee although the fuel prices this month have stayed unchanged.

The garment-footwear group is up only 0.7pct despite the Tet holiday, which showed that consumers cut their spending on such non-essential items.

The medicine-healthcare group is seen unchanged this month.

Overall, February’s CPI month-on-month increase is deemed as low compared to the Tet month of previous years. In the first two months, CPI has grown 1.44pct from last December and 3.28pct from last year’s same period.

SGT

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