The consumer price index (CPI) rose by 1.82 percent year on year between January and September, the slowest hike since 2016, the General Statistics Office has announced.
The Prime Minister has approved the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)’s proposal to cut power bills for enterprises for three months in provinces and cities applying social distancing, according to a Government resolution issued on August 28.
Reductions in electricity prices from June to the end of this year to support customers to overcome the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are estimated to total 1.57 trillion VND (67.74 million USD), according to Vietnam Electricity (EVN).
Rising production costs might force the Vietnam Electricity (EVN) to raise retail power prices but no official decisions had been made for this year, according to SSI Research.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted economies and commodity markets globally, including Vietnam, and domestic prices will continue to fluctuate and be more closely linked to the fluctuations of raw material and fuel prices on the world market.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is considering new models to calculate electricity prices, including one that would eliminate its current step pricing, which industry experts have called outdated and deeply unpopular among consumers.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has sent a report to the Prime Minister, proposing a reduction in the prices of electricity for three months to help ease difficulties facing production and business in the context of the ravaging COVID-19 epidemic.
The overall inflation hikes much higher than the core inflation, mainly due to increased fuel and electricity prices. However, the core inflation inched up by only 1.85 percent in the first five month
Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Industry and Trade has pledged to help businesses stabilise market prices following hikes in gasoline and electricity prices.
Vietnam recorded a year-on-year rise of 2.71 percent in the consumer price index (CPI) between January and April of 2019, a three-year low in the period.
Power prices will increase by an average of 8.36 percent at the end of this month, said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong on March 5.
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue required ministries, sectors and localities to control the consumer price index (CPI) between 3.3-3.9 percent in 2019 while chairing a conference of the National Steering Committee on Price Management in Hanoi on January 17.
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has asked that electricity prices, which affect many sectors, be adjusted at appropriate points of time next year so as to keep inflation in 2019 at under 4 percent.
The State-run Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) Group produced 74.42 billion kWh of electricity in the first five months of 2018, an increase of 10.5 percent from a year earlier.
Thai Energy Minister Siri Jirapongphan has said his government will keep the diesel price at no higher than 30 THB per liter in a bid to keep transportation costs low.
Indonesia's economy is forecast to grow at a slower rate in the first quarter of this year despite the government's efforts to boost buying power and exports.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is drafting regulations on new retail prices for electricity, aiming to lower electricity prices for hotels in order to strengthen the tourism sector and hike prices for electricity-guzzling households in an effort to incentivise lower consumption.