Hanoi’s February consumer price index up 1.8 percent

Hanoi (VNA) - The consumer price index (CPI) in the capital city grew up 1.8 percent in February from the previous month, according to the Hanoi Statistics Office.

Ten out of 11 groups of products and services in the CPI basket recorded higher prices. The group of housing, electricity, water and construction materials posted the highest price increase of 6.02 percent, mostly due to rises in the costs of electricity, gas, and construction services.

The prices of restaurant and catering services jumped 1.44 percent thanks to high consumption demand for the Lunar New Year festival – the biggest traditional festival of Vietnamese people.

Moving in the upward trend were groups of transport (1.24 percent); beverage and tobacco (0.77 percent); apparel, headwear, and footwear (0.06 percent); household equipment (0.04 percent); and other goods and services (0.11 percent). The two groups of medicine and medical services, and education both grew by 0.01 percent.

The postal and telecoms services group was the only one recording a price decline of 0.01 percent.

The Statistics Office also said that the gold price went down by 0.56 percent, while the price of US dollar dropped by 0.27 percent as compared to January./.