Vietnam’s consumer price index (CPI) will remain high in the first two months of 2011, said experts from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT).
The hike is attributed to a stronger purchasing power during Tet, the traditional lunar New Year festival, and higher price of imports.
According to the General Statistics Office, in the last three months of 2010, CPI rose continually, registering a month-on-month rise of 1.05 percent, 1.86 percent and 1.98 percent. These are the highest increases over the same periods of recent years.
While taking a number of measures to curb price hike, including increasing supply, the MIT forecasted that in January CPI will jump by about 1.5 percent over December, 2010 and surge 1.7-1.8 percent in February.
Experts cited weak competitiveness, low efficiency of capital usage and incomprehensive economic development strategies as factors that have caused high inflation over the past years, especially in 2010.
In 2010, CPI increased by 11.75 percent against 2009. This means a failure in fulfilling target of curbing inflation at 7 percent set by the National Assembly./.