Saturday, February 24, 2007

High inflation in Februrary

The February consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.17% over that of January and 6.5% over the same month last year as predicted earlier by economic experts, said a senior official of the General Statistics Office (GSO).

According to Nguyen Duc Thang, Deputy Head of the Department for Trade, Price and Services, the sharp rise in the February CPI was in line with the market rule during the Lunar New Year festival (Tet) when demand for consumer goods and entertainment was high.

The food and food service group saw the highest rise of 3.45%, followed by the beverage and tobacco group, 2.52%, and the home appliances and other services group, 2.26%.

Ho Chi Minh City reported the highest CPI increase of 3.05% among ten surveyed provinces and cities, 0.88% higher than the national average, followed by Dak Lak, with 2.94%, and Ha Noi, 2.09%.

In February, gold price increased 2.08% due to high demand for gold as the 2007 wedding season is approaching.

Thang forecasts that the March CPI may decrease by 0.2% as usually seen after Tet in many years.

Source: VNA

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