Hanoi (VNA) - The consumer price index (CPI) in February 2025 rose by 0.34% compared to January and increased 2.91% year-on-year, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).
The main drivers behind the CPI increase were pork price surges caused by supply shortages, along with higher costs for dining out, rents, and transport services due to growing consumer demand.
In February, among the nine categories with price hikes, transport saw the largest increase, rising 0.63% and contributing 0.06 percentage points to the overall CPI rise. Other groups such as housing, electricity, water, fuels, and construction materials also experienced price hikes. Soaring real estate prices forced landlords to raise rents. Additionally, food and restaurant services; medicine and healthcare services; other goods and services; and cultural, entertainment, and tourism services also saw increases.
On the other hand, factors that helped ease the CPI in the first two months included a 1.56% drop in transport costs, a 0.78% decrease in education fees due to tuition reductions in some provinces for the 2024-2025 school year, and a 0.62% decline in postal and telecommunications prices.
In February, domestic gold prices tracked global trends, with an uptick in demand during the Lunar New Year festival, leading to a 4.72% increase compared to January and a significant 32.57% rise compared to February 2024. The average gold price in the first two months of 2025 surged by 30.84%.
The US dollar exchange rate in the domestic market hovered around 25,548 VND/USD, showing a slight dip of 0.06% from January, but a 3.52% increase from February 2024. In the first two months of 2025, the US dollar price index climbed 3.75%.
Core inflation in February 2025 grew by 0.3% compared to the previous month and by 2.87% year-on-year. The average core inflation in the first two months of 2025 was 2.97% higher than the same period last year, lower than the overall CPI rise of 3.27%, primarily due to the exclusion of food, fuel, electricity, and healthcare services in the core inflation calculation./.
