This is the highest January CPI growth recorded in the last seven years.

Compared to the previous month, an upturn was seen in the prices of ten out of 11 main groups of goods and services, leading by food and catering services. It was followed by housing and construction materials; goods and other services and transport.

The only group experiencing price fall was post and telecommunications.

The CPI in January saw a strong rise due to the higher demand for food and foodstuff, drinks and textiles for the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.

Domestic gold price was up 4.37 percent over the previous month; while that of US dollar has been kept stable, at around 23,222 VND/USD.

GSO said the core inflation in January, which is CPI excluding grain food, fresh foodstuff, energy and the State-managed medical and educational services, increased by 0.76 percent from December 2019, and 3.25 percent compared to the same period last year.

VNA