Vietnam's Jan-Aug CPI up 4.04%

Vietnam's consumer price index (CPI), an indicator of inflation, went up 4.04% year-on-year in the first eight months of this year, remaining unchanged in the last two months (July and August).

The government aims to curb inflation at 4-4.5% this year.

Core inflation increased 2.71% year-on-year in the first eight months of this year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

In August, the CPI went up 1.89% from end-2023 and 3.45% from August 2023. The transport sector was the only one that saw prices down at negative 1.98%.

Other sectors recorded price increases between 0.05% and 0.29%. Housing, utilities and construction materials went up 0.29%; food and restaurant services, 0.27%; and medicine and healthcare services, 0.18%.

In the eight-month period, telecom-postal services was the only sector with a fall in CPI, at 1.28%. Other sectors recorded growth between 1.23% and 8.33%.

Notable hikes were seen in food and restaurant services with 4%, driven by food as a sub-sector with 14.98%; medicine and healthcare services with 7.35%, driven by healthcare services as a sub-sector with 9.35%; and education with 8.33%, driven by education services as a sub-sector with 8.91%.

In August alone, retail sales and services revenue reached VND526.6 trillion ($21.4 billion), up 7.9% year-on-year. For the first eight months of this year, the figure was VND4,148.4 trillion ($166.86 billion), up 8.5% year-on-year.

The January-August revenue figure included VND3,199.7 trillion ($130 billion) from retail sales, up 7.3% year-on-year; VND481.2 trillion from accommodation and restaurant services, up 14.3%; tourism with VND40.9 trillion, up 26.2%; and others with VND426.6 trillion, up 9.4%.