Vietnam’s CPI hits 18.12pct in 2011, exceeds target

The CPI soared at the beginning of this year before cooling down from the second quarter of this year to an increase of less than 1 per cent in the fourth quarter, said Bui Quang Vinh, Minister of Planning and Investment, at a recent meeting.

But the December’s CPI rise of 0.53 per cent seems to spark up a rising trend from 0.36 per cent and 0.39 per cent in October and December respectively, he said at the meeting between the central government and local authorities.

Moreover, the rise did not take the power price and airfare hikes into account, since the date of effect taking place right after the conclusion of the CPI calculations.

As a result, how strong the CPI rise in January 2012 will be would be hard to predict since it will be affected by both the price hikes and seasonal factors due to the coming Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, he added.

Almost all countries in the world suffered from inflation in 2011, but Vietnam’s sky-high inflation rate in 2011 was on the top of the world, said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Van Ninh.

With the concluded CPI for 2011, the government has failed to accomplish one among the most important targets set by the National Assembly (NA).

The NA last December asked the government to tame the CPI 2011 target at 7 per cent, which was widen to 17 per cent six months later.

The government in November showed off the determination to limit it at 18 per cent.
The CPI rise in Vietnam’s two biggest cities, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, is estimated to have increased 0.73 per cent and 0.61 per cent in December from November, driven by the higher prices of foods and foodstuffs.

As many as 9 out of the 11 baskets of goods contributed to the calculation of the CPI data in the southern economic hub of HCMC saw their prices rise this month, while all groups of commodities and services in the capital city posted rise in CPI in month.

In HCMC, prices of food and foodstuff saw the highest increase of 1.29 per cent month onmonth. Of which, prices of foodstuff surged 1.65 per cent, prices of food were up 1.54 per cent, followed by the beverage and cigarette basket with the rise of 0.8 per cent from November.

In Hanoi, two of 11 item groups posted rise of over 1 per cent were garment-textile-headwear-footwear and the group of culture-entertainment-tourism.

The December rate sent the index in HCMC up 15.86 per cent year on year, making an average increase of 1.23 per cent per month in 2011, higher than the monthly average increase of 2009, 2010 but much lower than that level of 18.08 per cent in 2008.

Hanoi's CPI in December 2011 increased 17.07 per cent from December 2010.

In the two cities, the CPI has started to cool down from September 2011 after many months of accelerating above 1 per cent.