Speaking at a press conference organised by the GSO under the Ministry of Planning and Investment in Hanoi on December 27 to announce the country's socio-economic results in Q4 and the whole year, Huong said the consumer price index (CPI) in December went up 0.1 percent month-on-month and 0.19 percent year-on-year. The 2020 CPI rose by 3.23 percent from 2019 while basic inflation climbed by 2.31 percent annually.

Director General of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Nguyen Thi Huong

Explaining the price hike this year, Director of the GSO’s Price Statistics Department Do Thi Ngoc said due to high shopping demand during the Lunar New Year (Tet) Festival from January-February, food prices increased by 4.51 percent annually, bringing up the CPI by 0.17 percent. Pork prices also moved up the CPI by 1.94 percent due to unstable supply.

Rainfall and floods in the central region during October-November also hiked prices of fresh, dried and processed vegetables.

Other increases were also seen in the prices of medical supplies and education services.

Meanwhile, falling prices in oil and gas, flight tickets and electricity due to the COVID-19 pandemic curbed the CPI rise.

According to the GSO, basic inflation dropped from 3.25 percent in January to 0.99 percent in December, which proved the efficiency of the State Bank’s monetary policy this year.

VNA

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