The year of 2017 is considered a successful year in inflation control, as the average CPI increased 3.53 percent over 2016 and 2.6 percent compared to December 2016, fulfilling the target of keeping the rate under 4 percent for the whole year, said Director of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Nguyen Bich Lam.

CPI development chart in 2017

Vu Thi Thu Thuy, head of the GSO’s Price Statistics Department pointed to major reasons behind CPI rise, including hikes in the prices of health care and education services, as well as an increase in regional minimum wage.

At the same time, domestic fuel price in 2017 rose 15.49 percent compared to 2016, contributing 0.64 percent in CPI increase in the whole year.

The price of construction materials was up 5.23 percent due to increases in the prices of sand and steel.

Rising prices of essential goods in the world market also pushed the import price index up by 2.57 percent and export price index up by 2.93 percent; the Producer Price Index (PPI) expanded by 2.82 percent, she noted.

Thuy underscored that a record number of 16 storms were seen in 2017, which pushed up the price of food and foodstuff in affected localities, especially central provinces.

Meanwhile, there are a number of factors helping rein in inflation, including a downturn of 2.6 percent in food price in 2017, helping reducing the overall CPI by about 0.53 percent.

GSO Director Nguyen Bich Lam attributed the success in meeting inflation target for the year to efforts of ministries in encouraging businesses’ involvement in stocking goods and stablising the market.

The Ministry of Finance has kept a close watch on market developments, while coordinating with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to manage fuel prices.

In addition, the State Bank of Vietnam’s proper monetary policies also helped ensure macro-economic stability.

According to the GSO, the core inflation (CPI excluding food, foodstuff, fresh food, health care and education services) in December rose 0.11 percent over the previous month and 1.29 percent year on year.

The average core inflation in 2017 is 1.41 percent, lower than the plan by 1.6-1.8 percent, showing the effectiveness of monetary policies.-VNA