From January to April, items posting the most significant price hikes included transport with a 16.21 percent increase, beverages and cigarettes with a 2.59 percent increase, and construction materials with a 2.09 percent increase. Compared to March, the index grew by 0.18 percent, caused by price hikes in eight out of the 11 basket items used to calculate the CPI.

The General Statics Office said that increases in the prices of construction materials, catering and tourism services, and the recovery of tuition fees in education services after the cuts during COVID-19 are factors that contributed to the rising CPI.

The average CPI for the first four months of this year rose 2.1 percent year on year, higher than 0.89 percent recorded in the same period last year, but lower than the increases in the January-April period in 2017-2020. Core inflation was also up 0.97 percent.

In April, among 11 major groups of goods and services, eight saw an increase in prices, while three others saw a decrease.

The head of the GSO said that the hike in petrol prices was a major factor in the CPI increase in the first four months of this year, adding that so far, domestic petrol prices surged 48.84 percent year on year, which led to 1.76 percentage points rise in CPI.

Following the petrol price, cooking gas prices also increased 24.6 percent year on year, contributing to a CPI increase of 0.36 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the price of materials for house construction increased 8.51 percent, while that of rice went up 0.98 percent, and restaurant service was up 3.17 percent.

On the oth꧑er hand, in the first four months of this year, a downturn was seen in the prices of food (0.94 percent), processed meat (4.48 percent), and𒆙 education services (3.93 percent).

The increase was driven by factors such as rising construction material cost and higher education fees, according to the office. In 2021, Vietnam saw the CPI rise 1.84 percent compared to the previous year, the lowest level since 2016. Overall, the health situation was also improving in the country as the Covid-19 numbers have dipped over the last few weeks. Vietnam recorded 6,068 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, down by 1,048 from Thursday, according to its Ministry of Health. The new infections, recorded in 59 provinces and cities, were all domestically transmitted. The capital of Hanoi remained the epidemic hotspot with 843 new cases reported on Friday, followed by the northern Phu Tho province with 386 and the central highlands Gia Lai province with 341. The newly reported infections brought the total tally to 10,644,700 with 43,038 deaths. Nationwide, as many as 9,245,528 Covid-19 patients, or nearly 87 percent of the coronavirus infections, have recovered so far. Vietnam has so far gone through four coronavirus waves of increasing scale, complication and infectivity. As of Friday, it has registered more than 10.6 million locally transmitted Covid-19 cases since the start of the current wave in April 2021, said the ministry.  Nguyen Thu Oanh, Director of the Price Statistics Department under General Statistics Office said that the increase of four months was still lower than the period 2017-2020.

Fluctuation of essential goods

Oanh pointed to a number of reasons why the consumer price index in April increased compared to March. The price of housing maintenance materials rose in line with the increase of production input material prices. Prices of educational services in some localities have increased again (after the period of tuition exemption and reduction) and the price of catering, tourism services have increased due to increased consumer demand. As for the price of gold, the report said that the domestic price was moving in the opposite direction compared to the world price. As of April 25, the average world gold price stood at $1,950 per ounce, down 0.3% compared to March. Meanwhile, the domestic gold price index increased by 0.7% over the previous month, by 12% over the same period and an average of 5.7%./.