The increase was attributed to the supply shortage after the African swine fever epidemic at the end of 2023, and a rise in household electricity prices due to hot weather.
Among the 11 main groups of consumer goods and services, seven saw price hikes compared to the previous month, while three saw declines and one stayed unchanged.
In the first five months of this year, the index inched up 4.03% year-on-year, and core inflation increased by 2.78%.
In the period, the education group’s price index increased by 8.7% as in the 2023-2024 academic year, some provinces and centrally-run cities raised tuition fees, causing the overall CPI to expand by 0.54 percentage point.
Increases in prices of drugs and medical services (up 6.8%), housing and construction materials (5.49%), and culture-entertainment-tourism services (1.6%) also led to the CPI hike.
In the period, the price of postal and telecommunications services reported a year-on-year decrease of 1.46%.
In May, domestic gold prices fluctuated in the same direction as the world’s. The domestic gold price index in the month increased by 3.81% compared to the previous month, up 21.47% compared to December 2023 and 32.18% year-on-year. The average increase in the first five months of 2024 is 22.95%.
