Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

This is the highest February CPI growth recorded in the last eight years.

However, the index in the first two months decreased 0.14 percent year-on-year.

Compared to the previous month, an upturn was seen in the prices of ten out of 11 main groups of goods and services, with housing and construction materials taking the lead (4 percent). It was followed by food and catering services (1.61 percent); transport (1.55 percent); drinking and tobacco (0.9 percent); garment and textile, headwear and footwear (0.25 percent).

The price of education services remained stable compared to the previous month.

The GSO’s Price Statistics Department explained that the CPI in February saw a strong rise due to the higher demand for food and foodstuffs for the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.

The prices of medicine and medical supplies in January-February increased by 0.88 percent compared to the same period last year, the price of gas in the month climbed 3.05 percent year-on-year.

There were a number of reasons for the decrease in CPI in the last two months. The petrol and oil prices decreased by 15.78 percent year-on-year while the electricity price in January fell by 16.88 percent over the same period last year, making the average electricity price in the first two months of 2021 down by 9.95 percent.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for travel and tourism decreased compared to the same period last year. On average, in the last two months, the air ticket price dropped by 35.65 percent, train fares down 12.39 percent; and tour prices decreased by 4.99 percent.

At the same time, domestic gold price in February was up 0.25 percent over the previous month, while that of US dollar was around 23,145 VND per USD, down 0.17 percent month-on-month and 0.76 percent year-on-year./.

BTA