The Ministry said that goods and monetary markets had been developing positively considering the dire situation of the world economy.

Unfortunately, unstable prices of all kinds of materials on the world market and complications from natural disasters and diseases could have bad impacts on the domestic goods market by the end of this years, said the ministry.

The ministry forecast that this month the prices of essential goods would remain stable or increase slightly because world prices had recently been declining, and the domestic demand for goods had yet to increase sharply. Supply and kerosene prices also saw declines in September and the beginning of October.

The consumer price index (CPI) in October is expected to increase just 0.2 percent over last month, according to the ministry.

The Ministry of Finance plans to instruct provinces to use their budgets to support enterprises to stock goods to ensure fair prices during the lunar new year festival in 2009.

The ministry also plans to continue to solve difficulties and support enterprises to purchase export goods, especially seafood and agricultural products, The ministry also hopes to spark a decline of imported luxury and non-essential consumption.

The ministry said that the price of electricity, clean water, and public transportation would remain unchanged until the end of 2008.

The ministries of Science and Technology and Health Care and other ministries said they would check and issue quality standards for goods traded on the domestic market.

The ministry is also calling for regulations on imported scrap metal to ensure material for the domestic steel production and reduce import surplus.

By the and of 2008, the State Bank of Vietnam said it would tighten monetary policies in the domestic market, follow developments in the world financial and monetary markets, and closely supervise operations at commercial banks to have suitable management and ensure payment safety in the banking system and the economy.

Once these solutions are in place, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the domestic goods market should not see any sudden price increases in the fourth quarter of this year, and this year’s CPI would increase to no more than 25 percent.

Source: VNA