Ministries and sectors need to draft measures to reach the target ofsingle-digit inflation in 2012, says Deputy Minister of Industry andTrade Ho Thi Kim Thoa.
Thoa told the year-end meeting of the domestic market watch team herelast week that industries and sectors this year should operate at fullcapacity to meet domestic demand for essential goods and improvedistribution networks, with close co-operation on determining supply anddemand for goods and reasonable changes in price.
It isimperative to ensure sufficient supplies of essential products and avoidprice fevers, Thoa said. The Ministry of Industry and Trade will ensuresufficient supplies of electricity for production of essential goods,she added.
The Government also needs to devise further policiesto support development of the domestic market, especially tradepromotion programmes, she said. The ministry will continue to encourageexport, limit the trade deficit and promote production of domesticgoods.
Thoa urged the State Bank of Vietnam to stabilise foreignexchange rates and ensure foreign currency supplies for enterprisesimporting materials and equipment for domestic production, such as fuel,fertiliser, pig iron and pharmaceuticals.
According to thedomestic market watch team, inflation spiked nationwide in the firstseven months of last year due to soaring prices of rice and other foodstaples, as well as inflationary pressures worldwide.
Nguyen TienThoa, head of the Ministry of Finance's Price Management Department,said Vietnam's high inflation was also due to the low competitivecapacity of the domestic economy, including low-quality growth, anineffective investment structure and loose credit policies in previousyears that caused economic growth to overheat.
Inflation rose at arate of 18.58 percent in 2011, the General Statistics Office (GSO)reported last month. However, inflation began to slow in August due tosuch measures as tighter credit policies and State budget cuts.
Inflationfell from a one-month rate of 0.93 percent in August, to 0.82 percentin September, 0.36 percent in October, 0.39 percent in November and 0.52percent in December. All of these figures were well below the ratesduring the first seven months of the year, which ranged between 1.09percent and 3.32 percent per month, the GSO said.
For this year,the Government has targeted inflation below 10 percent, a growth rate of6-6.5 percent, and a 13-percent increase in export turnover. /.