CPI in January strongly climbs due to festive season

The consumer price index (CPI) in January this year jumped by 1.23 percent compared to December last year, the highest level in the past seven years, and soared by 6.43 percent over the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.
Experts from the GSO said that because of the festive season, the prices of food, foodstuff, eating out and transport services all increased heavily.

However, with such a sharp increase in the CPI, it requires the management in the next months to be cautious and ensure the implementation of inflation control target of 4 percent this year set by the National Assembly. Particularly, ten out of eleven commodity and service groups saw increases in the price. Restaurant and catering services posted the highest increase of 2.29 percent, of which food edged up 0.79 percent and foodstuff climbed 2.6 percent, causing the CPI to rise by 0.59 percent. Eating out alone advanced 2.26 percent, making the CPI go up 0.2 percent.

Especially, in this commodity group, pork price hiked up to 8.29 percent; fresh poultry meat gained 2.84 percent; fresh seafood grew 1.71 percent; poultry eggs added up 2.28 percent and fresh fruits enhanced 2.9 percent. Housing and building materials rose 1.47 percent; transportation inched up 0.69 percent; beverage and cigarettes surged 0.65 percent; culture, entertainment, and tourism moved up 0.25 percent; medicines and healthcare service increased 0.17 percent; education edged up 0.02 percent; goods and other services shot up 0.92 percent.

Despite a long holiday, total foreign direct investment capital into Vietnam by January 20 this year still reached US$5.3 billion, an increase of 179.5 percent over the same period last year. Of which, there were 258 newly-registered projects with total investment capital of $4.5 billion, up 14.2 percent in volume and up 454.1 percent in value compared to the same period last year. There were 77 times of projects asking to adjust investment capital for additional capital of $334 million, down 1.9 percent and 884 times of capital contribution and purchase of shares of foreign investors with total capital of $534.8 million, down 29.8 percent.

Among the total times of capital contribution and purchase of shares, there were 135 times that increased charter capital of enterprises with a total capital contribution of $0.19 billion and 749 times that foreign investors bought shares without increasing charter capital with the total value of $0.34 billion.

Realized FDI capital in January was estimated at $1.6 billion, an increase of 3.2 percent over the same period last year.

Noticeably, the number of newly-established enterprises in January was nearly 8,300 enterprises. Although the number of enterprises dropped compared to the same period last year, total registered capital still increased sharply by 76.8 percent over the same period last year, the highest level in the past four years.

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