Petrol, electricity prices push up CPI in July

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), nine out of 11 groups of goods and services posted price increases in July.

The transport sector saw the highest price increase at 3.91%; housing and construction materials went up by 0.47%; and culture, entertainment and tourism services rose by 0.3%; amongst others.

Only two groups of goods and services reported price decreases in July including restaurants and catering services, down 0.18% and post and telecommunications, down 0.02%.

Director of the GSO's Price Statistics Department Do ThiNgoc said that the CPI rise can be mainly attributed to the increasing prices of oil and petrol which surged by 9.02% over the previous month.

In addition, the prolonged hot weather has resulted in a high demand for electricity and water, pushing prices of electricity up by 2% and prices of water up by 0.25% over the previous month.

In July, several commodities suffered price decreases including rice (down 0.33% over the previous month) due to its abundant supply, pork due to the increasing imports of live pigs from Thailand and fresh seafood products (down 0.45%) due to import reductions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.