Hanoi (VNA)🧔 – The consumer price index (CPI) in January increased 0.98% month on month with notable fluctuations, the General Statistics Office (GSO) announced on February 6.

Nguyen Thu Oanh, Director of the GSO’s Price Statistics Department, pointed out that price adjustments under the Ministry of Health’s Circular 21/2024/TT-BYT, along with transport service and food price hikes triggered by high demand during the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, which fell in late January, were key CPI drivers last month.

Health, transport services cost more

Compared to the same period last year, January’s CPI rose 3.63% while core inflation went up 3.07%. These figures reflected the economic panorama in the year’s beginning and also indicated certain issues needing attention in price governance to ensure stability. Last month, pharmaceuticals and health services posted a month-on-month increase of 9.47%, raising the CPI by 0.51 percentage point. Higher health services costs were attributed to the application of new prices under Circular 21/2024/TT-BYT. The transition to winter and large temperature swings between day and night caused respiratory diseases to emerge, leading to high demand for medications, as well as vitamins and mineral supplements. In particular, vitamins and mineral supplements saw a price hike of 0.34%, gastrointestinal disorder medications 0.16%, and respiratory agents 0.12%. Oanh noted the application of new health service prices and the prevalence of weather-triggered respiratory illnesses boosted demand for medication. That was why the health service category recorded price growth of up to 12.57%.

In addition to healthcare, the transport category, with a month-on-month price increase of 0.95%, raised overall CPI growth by 0.09 of a percentage point. Notably, high travel demand during the year-end period led to an 11.08% rise in flight ticket prices. Other modes of transportation such as road, waterway, and rail transport also increased fares. Domestic fuel price adjustments caused petrol to go up 2.02% and diesel oil 4.99%.

Price escalates amid Tet shopping spree

Tet with traditional customs and high shopping demand is always a time of market vibrancy. This could be seen in costlier food and food services with a rise of 0.74%, dragging the CPI up by 0.25 of a percentage point. In the market, food prices inched up 0.3%. Glutinous rice prices increased the most – 1.79%, while pork prices 0.97% and fresh and processed fruit up 1.53%. Eating-out cost was 0.33% more expensive due to higher ingredient and labour prices. The beverage and cigarette category also followed the same trend, up 0.69%, as a result of stronger consumption and gift demand during Tet. However, not all categories saw price growth. The education category fell slightly, by 0.04%, thanks to the school fee support policy in Ho Chi Minh City. Postal and telecommunications services dropped 0.12% because of cheaper mobile devices.

Oanh went on to say that core inflation in January rose 3.07% year on year and stayed lower than the CPI expansion of 3.63% because food, household electricity, and health services, which were contributors to the CPI growth, are excluded when calculating core inflation. The gold and foreign currency markets also recorded notable changes last month. Domestic gold prices aligned with global fluctuations, up 1.03% month on month and 29.13% year on year. She said global gold price hikes were triggered by investors’ concern about rising inflation worldwide, along with a surge in domestic gold purchases ahead of Tet. Meanwhile, the USD price index moved up 0.21% compared to December and 3.98% from the same period last year, in line with higher US government bond interest rates./.