The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment remains unchanged in urban markets while it experiences strong growth in rural areas, according to the market research company Kantar Worldpanel.

In particular, the FMCG market in urban areas has struggled to maintain growth of 11 percent while the market in rural areas had grown firmly with a rise of 14 percent in value, observes the company’s report quoted by The Saigon Times Daily.

Kantar Worldpanel made its survey during a 12-week period ending on October 6, expecting the FMCG market to partly regain growth motives to continue the high growth if the economic situation keeps showing positive signals from now until the year-end.

According to the enterprise, except for traditional markets, all major retail channels had maintained double-digit growth rates.

Manufacturers make huge investments annually in developing new products to meet the rising diversified demand of consumers, said Kantar Worldpanel. This explains why the speed of launching new products is pretty impressive, with one new item introduced every two hours.

The company studied shopping habits of consumers for over 100 types of FMCG at 2,350 urban households in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang and Can Tho.

Meanwhile, the study of nearly 300 new products of 25 big FMCG items in the last five years indicates that a new product will attract one among 15 households or 7 percent of the total number and that 28 percent will purchase the item again.

Statistics released by the General Statistics Office (GSO) on October 24 show that the consumer price index ( CPI ) rose by 0.49 percent in Octover over the previous month, led by a surge in food prices after flooding in central region and adjustment in school fees. The figure represented a rise of 5.14 percent against December last year, and 5.92 percent year-on-year.

CPI in the country's two largest cities continued to increase in October due to surging food prices after floods and heavy rain. Hanoi saw an increase of 0.57 percent over the previous month, while the index for Ho Chi Minh City rose 0.17 percent.

The GSO said that the commodities price in Vietnam will be affected by many factors in the market in the remaining months of this year, when the disbursement of State-funded construction investment will be accelerated and businesses will also expand production to serve the year-end shopping season.-VNA