Among 11 commodity groups, six saw price increases, includingtransportation (1.18 percent); housing, water and electricity supply, andconstruction materials (0.18 percent); household equipment and appliances (0.09percent), culture, entertainment and tourism (0.08 percent), education (0.06percent), medicines and medical services (0.02 percent).
Lower prices were recorded in food and catering services(0.18 percent), posts and telecommunication (0.08 percent), other goods andservices (0.02 percent); apparel, headwear and footwear (0.01 percent).Beverage and cigarette prices stayed the same.
Do Thi Ngoc, Director of the GSO’s Price StatisticsDepartment, attributed the CPI hike in April to higher domestic and exported riceprices, fuelled by higher demands from China and Southeast Asian countries.
Petrol prices were also adjusted up, thus pushing CPI by0.11 percent, she said, adding that flight and railway ticket prices moved up0.76 percent and 2.55 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, prices of housingmaterials, electricity and water supply hiked a respective of 0.5 percent, 0.14percent and 0.42 percent.
Prices of poultry and aquatic products curbed CPI growth dueto abundant supply.
Gold prices moved up 0.47 percent month-on-month while USDprices were kept stable at around 22,790 VND.
According to the GSO, basic inflation (CPI exclusive offoodstuff, fresh food, energy, health care and education services) in the firstfourth months this year stood at 1.34 percent, reflecting that monetary policyremains stable.-VNA