Consumers select Vietnamese products at a mall in HCM City (Photo: VNA)The first-quarter figure rose 0.84 percent compared to last year’saverage.
Among 11 groups of products and services in the CPI basket, increaseswere seen in transportation fees, of 2.04 percent, education 0.004 percent, andthe group of culture, entertainment, and tourism 0.4 percent.
Affected by petrol price adjustments on February 25 and March 12, fuelprices rose 5.76 percent.
Meanwhile, restaurant and catering services saw the strongest decline,of 1.46 percent, while foodstuff was up 0.25 percent against February.
The strongest slumps in this group were seen in vegetables (4.76percent), beef (3.47 percent), and poultry (2.64 percent), as consumer demandreturned to normal after the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday in February, the largesttraditional festival of the Vietnamese people.
Also falling were beverages and tobacco (0.36 percent), and garments,hats, and footwear (0.02 percent).
The group of housing, electricity, water, and construction materials weredown 0.09 percent against February. This included falls of 0.56 percent in the powerprice, 0.1 percent in the water price, and 1.43 percent in gas and fuel prices dueto increases in petrol prices.
The price of household devices and appliances fell 0.13 percent againstFebruary.
The Statistics Office also reported that the gold price was down 1.79percent in March but up 25.89 percent year-on-year in the first quarter. The USdollar exchange rate expanded 0.11 percent in March compared to February, but wasdown 0.91 percent year-on-year in the first quarter./.
VNA
