Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’sconsumer price index (CPI) in February and March will be lower than that in theprevious month if the acute respiratory disease caused by the novel of the coronavirus (Covid-19) ends in Q1, according to the General Statistics Office(GSO).

Pharmaceutical and electricity prices arelikely to rise in the coming time due to the Covid-19 outbreak, according tothe GSO.

On the contrary, the prices of meat andvegetable, catering and tourism services, hotels and entertainment may declinedue to a downward trend in consumer’s demand.

The GSO predicts that food and foodstuffprices will surge, regardless of whether the Covid-19 outbreak ends in thefirst quarter of 2020 or continues afterwards.

In the first scenario, the prices of food,beverages and garment-textile strongly rise in the Lunar New Year holiday dueto increasing demand then stabilise in line with consumption rule, with theCovid-19 ending in Q1. In that case, this year’s CPI is projected at 3.96percent.

Meanwhile, in the second one, if the pricesof pork, petrol and gas all increase, worsened by unfavourable weathers such asdrought, saline intrusion and water shortage and the virus threat persists, itmay expand 4.86 percent in the year.

To realise the target of keeping CPI below4 percent in 2020, the GSO proposed that the Government not adjust prices ofgoods under State management in the first half of the year.

The State bank of Vietnam also needs tostabilise interest and exchange rate in a bid to control inflation rate between2 percent and 2.5 percent./.