Hanoi’s consumer price index (CPI) in July rose by a slight 0.25 percent over the previous month, but was up 8.43 percent over the same period last year, reported the city’s Statistics Office.

According to the experts, the price of nine commodity groups were on the rise against last month, led by food and restaurant services, and beverages and tobacco with 0.6 percent.

In the food and restaurant group, the restaurant service saw a strong increase of 1.18 percent which is attributed to a large number of students travelling away from home for college and university entrance exams.

Next on the list is household equipment and utensils with an increase of 0.56 percent while the remaining groups saw rises ranging from 0.5 to 0.2 percent.

The experts added that due to the close control of the distribution of construction materials, cement, iron and steel rises caused an insignificant increase of 0.08 percent in the housing, electricity, fuel and construction materials group.

The transportation group declined by 1.06 percent and the price of post and telecommunications remained unchanged.

Also in the month, the gold price went up 2.01 percent and the US dollar rose 0.48 percent against last month./.