The prices of many key goods would stay unchanged in the monthsapproaching the lunar new year holiday, industry insiders have claimed.

The reason behind this forecast is that people'spurchasing power remains weak and essential goods traders still havelarge inventories, they said.

According to marketresearch from Bien Hoa Confectionery Joint Stock Company (Bibica),growth of purchasing power in the 2014 Tet holiday would represent arelatively low growth rate of 5 percent against last year.

"Customers would be more selective in purchasing their goods," said Nguyen Quoc Hoang, Bibica deputy general director.

Local producers would be forced to focus on the quality of their goods and keep selling prices stable, he said.

Hoang said that this year, Bibica would increase confectionery outputby 5-10 percent for the Tet holiday, lower than the 20 percent figure ofprevious years, in response to the lower purchasing power.

Vu Vinh Phu, chairman of the Hanoi Supermarket Association, saidretail revenues of goods and services in the first nine months of thisyear rose 5 percent, a marked dip on last year's 6.5 percent surge.

The economic downturn would have a knock-on effect on consumptionduring the 2014 Tet holiday, Phu said. However, some popular Tet goodssuch as pork, chicken, vegetables and fruit would likely increase by5-10 percent in selling price, while 30 percent of confectionery wouldbe cheaper due to their large inventories, Phu said.

Hanoi's demand for certain foods and vegetables could surge by 20percent in the month before Tet, the Hanoi Industry and Trade Departmentsaid.

It further predicted that total retail salesof goods and services were expected to increase by 15-18 percent to 38trillion VND (1.8 billion USD) against other typical months.-VNA