CPI in Ho Chi Minh City goes up 1.61 percent in December

HCM City (VNA) - The consumer price index (CPI) in Ho Chi Minh City went up 1.61
percent in December over the previous month, reported the municipal Statistics
Department.

The department’s Deputy Director, Nguyen Duc Tri, said that the CPI in the
southern economic hub rose by an aggregate 9.58 percent for this year

Among the commodities involved in the CPI calculation, the three groups of
garments and footwear; housing and construction materials; and foods and restaurant
services saw the highest rises in prices, at 3.17 percent, 2.50 percent and 2.37
percent from the previous month, respectively. Only educational product and service
prices stayed stable as comparison with the previous month.

Economists said that the price hike of foodstuff is due to many reasons, in
particular unusual weather, epidemics in plants and animals, the rise in input
material price and especially high prices of gold and US dollars.

They also said that the rises in prices of garments and footwear, housing and
construction materials were fuelled by high demands during the year-end celebrations
such as Christmas and the New Year festivals in both solar and lunar
calendars.-Enditem