Inflation soars by 12.63% year-on-year
06/08/2010 - 31 Lượt xem
Inflation posted a one-month rise of 2.91 per cent in December and 12.63 per cent over the same month last year, the highest level in 10 years, according to Nguyen Duc Thang, deputy director of the General Statistics Office’s price department.
This monthly rise of 2.91 per cent brought the average consumer price index to 8.3 per cent in 2007, slightly lower than the country’s GDP growth rate of 8.7 per cent, Thang said.
Thang attributed the dramatic hike to rapidly rising world food and petrol prices. Food prices account for 43 per cent of the consumer price index (CPI) and fuel 9.04 per cent, he noted.
High fuel prices caused transportation costs to rise 4.38 per cent from November, while food bills rose 4.24 per cent.
Thang also blamed the inflationary spike to the effects of this year’s natural disasters and the Government’s slow management of monetary policy, as well as the impact on domestic goods of recent reductions in import taxes.
Ha Noi Supermarket Association chairman Vu Vinh Phu said food prices took a particular hit due to disease outbreaks among livestock, e.g., the blue-ear disease which struck the nation’s swine. He also accused breeders of keeping the prices artificially high as Tet approached.
Phu predicted that if the Government did not take action, the prices of consumer goods would further increase by 10 to 15 per cent as Tet approached.
Housing and construction materials also posted high increases in December due to increasing prices of steel.
Urban areas saw a greater increase in consumer prices, at 13.29 per cent higher than in December a year ago. Rural inflation was up 11.99 per cent year-on-year.
Prices of all types of goods and services in rural areas grew at lower rates than in urban areas, except for transportation costs.
Source: VietnamNew.
