Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi’s consumer price index (CPI) in August dropped slightly from the p♐revious month, the city’s Statistics🐓 Office reported on August 23.

A downturn was seen in three groups of goods, while a slight rise was recorded in the remaining eight groups, reported the office, adding that the highest price rise was marked in education as the new school year is approaching. Meanwhile, transportation price fell sharpest as fuel prices was cut down two times in the month, while prices of food and catering services was also down sharply due to a plunge in price of food and foodstuff, especially rice in Hanoi through the month when supply was abundant. Decrease was spotted in prices of housing, power, water, fuel, and construction materials. In August, the gold price climbed 1.6 percent month on month and 19.8 percent compared to December last year, while the US dollar price fell slightly over the previous month and 0.7 percent over December 2015. Meanwhile, total domestic goods sales and services revenue was estimated at 176.28 trillion VND, a rise of 1.5 percent month on month and 9.9 percent year on year, while total retail value was 43.16 trillion VND, up 1.5 percent over the previous month and 7 percent compared to the same period last year. So far this year, total goods sales and services was nearly 1.38 trillion VND, a rise of 9.5 percent year on year, with total retail sales reaching 325.42 trillion VND, up 8.4 percent. Of the total, the State sector contributed 395.87 billion VND, an increase of 6.5 percent over the same period last year, while the non-State sector added 919.29 trillion VND, a rise of 10.8 percent, and the foreign-invested sector, 65.65 trillion VND, up 9.8 percent. In August, Hanoi earned 893 million USD from exports, increasing 0.3 percent month on month, but dropping 1.8 percent compared to the same time last year. Rise was seen in a number of exported goods, including machinery and spare parts, 16 percent, computers and peripheral devices, 2.9 percent, and footwear and leather products, 7.5 percent. In the first eight months of this year, the capital’s total export value was worth over 7 billion USD, a drop of 1.4 percent. Hanoi imported over 2.1 billion USD worth of commodities in August, up 7 percent month on month but down 8.4 percent year on year. In the January-August period, Hanoi imported 15.7 billion USD worth of goods, a decrease of 5.2 percent year on year. The sharp fall was seen in the import of petrol, with 27.5 percent, followed by fertilizer, 19.1 percent, and chemicals, 21.6 percent.-VNA