The purchasing power of Vietnamese residents has slightly reduced according to the General Statistics Office (GSO), following a month-on-month decrease of 0.1 percent of the total retail sales value of goods and services.

In the first nine months of this year, the total sales value reached 1.7 trillion VND (81.6 billion USD), up 17.3 percent over the same period last year.

The turnover of industrial goods in 2012 was 1.3 trillion VND (63 billion USD), accounting for 77 percent of the total. This is a year-on-year rise of 16.5 percent.

The revenue from hotels and restaurants rose 19 percent from last year, making up 12 percent of this year's figure.

Sales from other services totalled 10 percent of the value, representing a high growth rate of 40 percent.

Vu Manh Ha, an economist from the GSO said that a 2.2 percent surge of the consumer price index (CPI) this month - the highest this year - was a factor behind the decrease in purchasing power.

Notably, prices of health care services rose by 23 percent while education and training climbed 17 percent, Ha said.

He added that purchasing power is expected to increase again in the last months of the year providing there are no financial and monetary fluctuations affecting the CPI.

He said CPI was expected to remain stable in single digits for the whole year.-VNA