Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and Hanoi statistics offices reported an increase of 0.48 percent and 0.41 percent, respectively, in the consumer price index (CPI) in May over April.

The index in the southern economic hub represented a rise of 9.82 percent over the previous year and a growth of 4.51 percent so far this year, municipal statistics office head Du Quang Nam said.

Real estate, electricity and water supply, fuel and construction made a lead in price rise at a rate of 1.70 percent.

Most of essential goods for saw price increase such as household utensils with prices up by 0.48 percent, followed by food and restaurant services by 0.42 percent and apparels and footwear by 0.31 percent.

Cigarette was among a few items with prices down, which slightly dropped by 0.13 percent.

Supper markets enjoyed a sharp surge in retail revenues, largely attributable to their huge promotion offers and a long holiday in celebrations of April 30 and May 1, that pushed up the purchasing power.

The big festival with an increasing demand in consumption has been believed to send prices and transaction volumes of a number of consumer goods up at wholesale markets.

The retail prices of staples continued to fall by 0.39 percent as the winter-spring harvest has just finished.

Good news came from rice exporters who said they were exporting the grain at 466 USD a tonne, representing an increase of 60 USD year on year and 16 USD over the average bidding price won by other regional rice exporters.

Food prices rebounded in May with a rise of 0.69 percent after a slight drop of 0.23 percent in April.

Among the items with price hikes were uncooked poultry meat, up by 0.43 percent, assorted processed meat up by 0.40 percent, eggs by 0.60 percent and uncooked seafood by 1.35 percent.

Gold rose by 1.93 percent in prices over the previous month while USD fell by 1.07 percent in value against the Vietnamese dong.

Meanwhile, the Hanoi statistics office reported that the CPI surged by 9.62 percent year on year and 4.9 percent over December, 2009.

All groups of consumer goods experienced a rise in prices in May, except entertainments and post and telecommunication as their service charges dropped between 0.05 and 0.17 percent.

Like in HCM City , housing, electricity, water, fuel and construction materials led in price hike at a rate of 1.77 percent month on month while prices of other items rose slightly at less than one percent.

The municipal statistics office blamed the CPI growth on rising input costs such as electricity and water charges.

The gold market witnessed the up and down trend while the US dollar value against the Vietnamese dong went down by 1.1 percent month on month, almost the same with the HCM market./.