Ho Chi Minh City’s consumer price index (CPI) in December climbed by 1.61 percent over November, according to the city Statistics Department.
The city’s CPI of the year rose by 9.58 percent, a year-on-year increase of 10.25 percent.
Of the price basket, the three groups of clothing and footwear, housing and construction materials, foods and restaurant services registered the highest increase this month, at 3.17 percent, 2.5 percent and 2.37 percent from November, respectively.
Other areas that increased in the price index were beverages, cigarettes, goods, other services, cultural items, recreation and tourism.
Only prices for educational products and services stayed unchanged, as compare with the previous month.
The increase has been attributed to higher consumption rates relating to the year-end celebrations such as Christmas and the New Year festivals in both solar and lunar calendars.
Prices of sweets and dried seafood have soared sharply and with only a month to go for Tet (lunar New Year), the price of sweets have increased by 50 percent, while the price of dried seafood has increased by about 30 percent, as compared with a few months ago.
Prices of alcohol, tea and beverages have also risen by 10-15 percent compared to the same period last year.
Many goods including cooking oil, sugar and monosodium glutamate have also seen an increase in price.
For example, Tuong An soybean oil, which sold for VND36,300 per liter in November, in early December it went for 38,000 per liter, and it is presently selling for VND39,600 per liter.
Sugar has fetched VND18, 000 per kilogram at supermarkets, while it has been selling at VND23, 000-24,000 per kilogram at some markets.
Meanwhile, Hanoi’s CPI of 2010 has also increased 9.56 per cent over 2009, fuelled by a rise of 1.83 per cent in December, according to the Hanoi Statistics Department.
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