VINACHEM

HA NOI (VNS) — The country's CPI is under control this month with an increase of 0.85 per cent after soaring 2.2 per cent in September, the General Statistics Office said yesterday.

Compared to the figure of last October, the index rose by 7 per cent, a level the office said would help keep inflation rates in single digits this year.

The office's Consumer Price Index Department deputy director Ngo Thi Anh Duong said the move was due to an increase of 0.29 per cent in prices of foodstuff and restaurant services, which accounted for up to 40 per cent of the goods baskets used to calculate the index.

Food prices rose by only 0.37 per cent although rice supplies were declining as the summer-autumn crops in the South had finished and rice export grew.

Duong noted that the October's CPI was the third highest month-on-month rise of the index this year, following January's level of 1 per cent.

This was caused by a 5.94 per cent price increase in medicine and healthcare services, she explained. Healthcare services alone surged 7.78 per cent following many provinces' moves to raise prices in accordance with the Government's guidance.

Housing and building material prices expanded significantly at 1.09 per cent, a result of a 4.7 per cent increase in prices of cooking gas and other household fuels.

The education service sector saw prices go up 2.1 per cent as the Ministry of Education and Training raised tuition fees in many localities.

The office said the CPI expanded cumulatively 6.02 per cent in the first 10 months of this year; the average CPI level for this period was up 9.66 per cent over the same period last year.

Duong said that generally over the 10 months, prices of essential goods (which represented the major ratios in the CPI goods basket) tended to hold due to declining consumer demand. For example, prices of foodstuff and restaurant services increased only 0.81 per cent.

The medicine and healthcare sector with a 10-month increase of nearly 38 per cent represented only 5.6 per cent of the basket; education which rose 16.7 per cent represented 5.7 per cent; housing and building materials which was up 8.44 per cent accounted for 10 per cent.

"The CPI will continue to be under control and this year's target to keep it at a single-digit level can be achieved," Duong said.

Meanwhile, gold prices increased sharply at 4.64 per cent this month over last month, causing the average gold price level for the first 10 months to increase 9.54 per cent over that of the same period last year. — VNS