Vietnam’s consumer price index (CPI) edged up 0.42% in September from the previous month, propelled by higher costs in non-public education services, food, and housing maintenance materials, Director of the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Finance Nguyen Thi Huong told a press briefing in Hanoi on October 6.

September’s CPI climbed 2.61% from December 2024 and 3.38% from a year earlier. The third-quarter average CPI rose by 3.27% year-on-year, lifting the nine-month average inflation rate to 3.27%.

Over the first nine months of 2025, the index rose in eight months and dipped in one, mirroring seasonal surges in demand tied to holidays and the Lunar New Year, along with swings in global rice, gas and fuel prices as well as domestic pork, electricity and housing costs.

Highlighting the main drivers, Nguyen Thu Oanh, Head of the NSO’s Service and Price Statistics Department, said prices of food and catering services gained 3.3%, contributing 1.11 percentage points to the headline CPI. Housing, electricity, water, fuel and construction materials prices rose 6.14%, adding 1.16 percentage points, driven primarily by higher rents and housing maintenance expenses.

Healthcare and medicine prices jumped 13.48%, boosting the CPI by 0.73 percentage points. Education prices also inched up 1.81%, contributing 0.11 percentage points, in the wake of tuition adjustments at certain private preschools and universities for the 2025-2026 school year.

As for other goods and services, they went up 5.37%, adding 0.19 0.73 percentage points, spurred by rises in notary fees, insurance premiums, personal goods and ceremony services.

Countervailing pressures included a 2.9% drop in transport prices, which subtracted 0.28 percentage points from the CPI, chiefly on account of fuel’s 10.63% tumble. Postal and telecom prices, for their part, eased 0.47%, shaving off 0.01 0.73 percentage points, as older mobile devices saw price reductions, Oanh added.

Domestic gold prices in September leaped 6.53% month-on-month, up 55.4% year-on-year and 45.42% from December 2024. Average gold prices during January-September rose 41.86% year on year.

The USD/VND exchange rate also nudged higher by 0.3% from August, as import-related foreign currency demand picked up and public holding of the US dollar swelled under a looser monetary policy./.VNA