The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the first eight months of 2021 picked up 1.79 percent year-on-year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) announced on August 29.
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The August index edged up 0.25 percent month-on-month, and 2.82 percent year-on-year, largely owing to higher prices of food and foodstuff in cities and provinces under social distancing measures, according to the GSO.
The August CPI in urban areas rose 0.34 percent this month, higher than the 0.14 percent increase in rural areas.
Meanwhile, the eight-month core inflation rose by 0.9 percent year-on-year.
During the January-August period, the average fuel price inched up 22.86 percent year-on-year, pushing the CPI up 0.82 percentage point.
Education service cost grew 4.44 percent during period, adding 0.24 percentage point to the CPI. while rice prices grew 6.68 percent, contributing to a rise of 0.17 percentage point in the CPI.
In contrast, eight-month prices of food declined 0.38 percent from the same period last year, resulting in a 0.08-percentage-point slide of the CPI. It was because of drops in prices of staples, for example, pork (down 6.49 percent), and chicken (down 1.34 percent).
As the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) has made several rate cuts to support consumers affected by COVID-19, the eight-month electricity price slid 0.83 percent year-on-year, making the CPI to edge down 0.03 percentage point.
With travel restrictions continuing to be in place to curb the spread of COVID-19, rail tickets, airfares and prices of holiday packages fell by 0.4 percent, 19.85 percent, and 2.76 percent, respectively.
Vietnam’s export turnover in the first eight months of 2021 rose by 21.5 percent year on year to 212.5 billion USD , despite a decline of 5.4 percent in August, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported on August 29.
The domestic sector contributed 55.6 billion USD, accounting for 26.2 percent of the total and representing a year-on-year increase of 10.5 percent. The foreign-invested sector (including crude oil) made up 73.8 percent of the total, or 156.8 billion USD, up 25.5 percent.
During the period, 30 export items recorded revenue of over 1 billion USD each and together they accounted for 91.8 percent of the total shipments.
The group of industrial processing goods reeled in a largest share of total export earnings, with nearly 189.3 billion USD, up 22.5 percent year on year. Meanwhile, agricultural and forestry products brought home 15.4 billion USD (up 14.9 percent) and of aquatic products 5.58 billion USD, up 7.1 percent.
The U.S. remained the biggest export market of Vietnam from January-August, buying 62 billion USD of Vietnamese goods, a year-on-year rise of 32.5 percent. China came second with 32.7 billion USD, up 19.8 percent. The EU and ASEAN followed with 26 billion USD and 18.4 billion USD, increasing by 14.5 percent and 23.3 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the country spent 216 billion USD on imports in the eight-month period, an annual growth of 33.8 percent, with China being the biggest source of imports.
The country posted a trade deficit of 3.71 billion USD during the period. ■