Hanoi’s January CPI moderately increases

Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi’s consumer price index (CPI) in January inched up by only 0.35% month-on-month and 3.09% year-on-year, the municipal Statistics Office has reported.

Among the 11 commodity groups, nine saw month-on-month increases, with the highest recorded in transport services (1.14%) as a result of hikes in oil and gas prices in the month, followed by beverages and tobacco (1.01%).

Restaurant and catering services edged up by 0.93%, and the group of cultural, entertainment and tourism activities increased by 0.57%.

The slight increases were seen in other groups like garments, footwear and headwear with 0.22%; household utensils, 0.21%; education equipment, 0.03%; medicines and medical services, 0.02%; and goods and other services, 0.57%.

Meanwhile, prices of housing, electricity, water, fuel and construction materials, and postal and telecom services slightly dropped by 0.69% and 0.01%, respectively.

Gold prices rose 0.65% month-on-month and 1.96% year-on-year, while the US dollar price was down 2.24% from December and up 3.4% against the same period last year.

According to the office, the capital city welcomed some 374,000 tourists in January, up 3% from the previous month and 3.5 times higher than the figure recorded in the corresponding time last year.

Of the holidaymakers, around 245,000 were foreigners, a 16-fold rise year-on-year, mainly from the Republic of Korea (RoK), Japan, the US, China, the UK, Singapore, France, Germany, Thailand, and Malaysia./.