Hanoi’s June consumer price index (CPI) increased by 1.21 percent over last month and 20.27 percent compared with the same period last year, the municipal Statistics Office announced.

In the first six months of this year, the capital city’s CPI saw a year-on-year rise of 15.7 percent, according to the office.

Of the 11 consumption categories, only post and telecom services maintained their prices in comparison with last month.

The biggest price hikes in the month were seen in the group of food and restaurant services with 2.08 percent, following by education, and beverage and tobacco with 1.12 percent and 1.09 percent, respectively.

Other categories including housing, electricity, water, fuel and construction materials; medicine and health care services; culture, sports and entertainment; home appliances and other goods and services saw month-on-month increases of less than 1 percent.

Also during this month, gold prices rose slightly, by 0.19 percent over last month and 35.43 percent compared with the corresponding period last year. Meanwhile, US dollar prices fell 0.38 percent against the previous month but saw a year-on-year increase of 8.74 percent.

According to economic experts, despite year-on-year increases of prices remaining high in the first two quarters of this year, this month saw the second consecutive reduced rise in a row compared with April, which posted a record hike of 3.28 percent.

The slowdown in this month’s CPI growth was attributable to the city’s efforts in stabilising prices, curbing inflation, developing the macro economy and ensuring social security, they said.

The capital city swelled its price stabilisation fund from 400 billion VND in 2010 to 475 billion VND in 2011 and the process was projected to run until April, 2012.

Most worthy of note is that consumers have tightened expenditure, pushing down social demand. A number of supermarkets, at the same time, denied receiving goods with increased prices from suppliers.

The stable gold and US dollar market also contributed to the slowdown in prices of many essential commodities and services, the economic experts said./.