Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has requested ministries and relevant agencies to make all-out efforts to keep inflation at between 4.5-5 percent as set by the National Assembly in 2016.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue (C) speaks at the event 

Addressing a meeting of the National Steering Committee on Price Management in Hanoi on October 19, the Deputy PM, who is head of the committee, said there is not much room for further price rise, as the consumer price index (CPI) for January-September already went up 3.14 percent from December 2015.

He noted that besides core inflation of 1.81 percent, the CPI growth is mainly affected by the prices of medicine, health and education services, food and food stuff.

Deputy PM said the adjustment of medical services prices should be careful calculated in order to control inflation.

He added that in the year-end months, the prices of foodstuff tend to increase, and accelerated public investment may affect inflation, so the task of keeping CPI rise under five percent will be difficult, requiring strict management.

The Deputy PM urged the Ministry of Health along with the Ministry of Finance and the Vietnam Social Insurance to host a conference on medicine bidding this month to bring the price of medicine down.

He stressed that the price of health services for people who do not have health insurance should not be raised in 2016 and told ministries to carefully consider the timing and roadmap for health services price increase next year.

Deputy PM Hue also directed the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to continuously stabilise the core inflation at between 1.81-2 percent while taking necessary measures to maintain and partly reduce lending interest. The SBV should direct the capital flow into priority fields and keep good control of credit growth and structure.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Trade was ordered to maintain stable electricity’s retail price in the last three months of this year, and effectively managing the prices of other products such as sugar, oil and petroleum.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are to direct departments and localities to stock up sufficient supply of goods for domestic market, especially on Tet holiday and Christmas Day.

The Ministry of Transport in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance will work to reduce fees for 10 build-operation-transfer (BOT) stations in October 2016.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s report, the CPI for the first nine months of this year rose 2.07 percent year on year and 3.14 percent from December 2015, mostly driven by the adjustment of prices of medical and educational services under the Government’s policy of align the prices in line with market rules.

Unfavourable weather changes and a raise in minimum wage are also factors to CPI growth.-VNA