VietNamNet Bridge – Prices of a vast array of commodities are poised to rise from this month despite the low purchasing power as input costs have been increasing steadily, said retailers and researchers.

Several supermarket operators said that they have received requests of increasing prices from many suppliers and producers.

A representative of the convenience store chain Shop&Go said suppliers have requested to increase prices by 8-10% for food products and 10% for non-food items.

Meanwhile, many others do not request to increase prices but reduce weights of products such as sweet cakes and instant noodles.

“Up to half of products have either price hike requests and or unit weight reductions so far,” the representative told the Daily.

Similarly, the convenience store chain Satrafoods and the supermarket chain Maximark have also got requests to increase prices. However, the number of such requests is not many.

Increasing prices is also what producers are planning.

According to Le Thi Thanh Tam, deputy general director of Saigon Food Joint Stock Company, the firm has not increased product prices since last year despite higher input pressure, but it cannot bear the burden anymore.

“Prices of fuel, water and labor cost have kept rising since the year’s beginning, but we have not increased prices due to the low buying power. However, input costs such as electricity have continued to be revised up and we are planning to raise workers’ salaries as well,” she said.

Speaking to the Daily, economic expert Ngo Tri Long said that there was a high likelihood that there would be a new price level this month under the impact of many factors such as the road map of raising prices of many basic commodities and services and the wage increase for State workers.

The price hike pressure in the second half of the year is greater than in the first half, he said.

Nevertheless, according to Long, with the current low buying power, price hikes will not be substantial. Producers and distributors will need to calculate carefully based on the market’s supply and demand as well as other factors.

Wrong calculations can backfire and be counterproductive, as enterprises may lose market share and result in rising goods inventories, he said.

Meanwhile, the general director of a plastic company said that in spite of increasing input pressure, he has not thought of raising prices due to the low purchasing power of such products.

“We will gain nothing if increasing prices as consumers now only focus on essential commodities,” he said.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has given similar forecasts.

According to the ministry’s report on situations of the local market released on Monday, the commodity market towards the year-end can be affected by some price factors. Prices of oil, petrol and LPG gas tend to rise on the global market as the cold weather in some countries will soon begin.

Besides, the tendency of the Vietnam dong depreciating against the U.S. dollar, plus a risk of output reduction can leave an impact on the goods supply in final months of the year.

However, due to the weak purchasing power, prices of many basic commodities such food, steel and cement will not surge strongly, according to the ministry.

This month, the commodity market will first be affected by factors like the fuel price hike taking effect in the middle of last month as well as rain and storms in some provinces. In addition, this month’s consumer price index is forecast to be higher than that of last month.

Source: SGT