The prices of all kinds of goods and services are skyrocketing these days. Vietnamese people have no other choice than applying the so called ‘belt-tightening policy’.

Nguyen Thi Thanh, a retired government official, complains that the prices of food are increasing day by day.

“Small sea fish, which once were priced at VND12,000 per kilo, are now selling at VND18,000 per kilo,” Ms Thanh said. The saleswoman said that electricity and petrol price increases have led to higher costs of transportation and higher prices of foods and other commodities.

Ms Thanh said that she can spend VND50,000 ($3.12) on food for her 4-member family. She just can buy popular food, while chicken, which has been a favourite food, has become unaffordable, as it is now selling at VND60,000 ($3.75) per kilo, or VND10,000 higher than previously.

Beef has increased by VND2,000 per kilo in price, while pork prices have increased by VND5,000 per kilo. Rice, the main food of Vietnamese people, has seen the price increase of VND10,000 for every 10 kg. Meanwhile, the prices of all kinds of vegetables have been rising by 100% since the hail in early November.

The price increases have made the lives of the households who live on pensions, as Mr Dich’s family, become more difficult. He and his wife can get VND1.5mil ($93.75) pension a month, and they have to tighten their purse strings because they have to support a child who is studying at a university.

Nguyen Minh Phong, Head of the Economics Division under the Hanoi Socio-Economic Development Research Institute, said that the power and petrol price increases were the main reasons behind the food and foodstuff price increases.

Though the State has decided to raise the salary for the staff working for state agencies, their actual income has decreased. The salary adjustment has just aimed to compensate for the inflation rate, while it has not raised the actual income of labourers and state officials.

An official from the Labour Union said that the minimum salary level applied for state officials could not ensure a normal life for a person, as it proves to be even lower than the poverty line set by Hanoi authorities.

The official said that the increase in salary for state officials is not big enough to compensate for the increases of a lot of key goods and services nowadays. However, it is impossible to offer a higher increase in salary due to the limited state budget.

Source: Tuổi trẻ