A Ministry of Planning and Investment report found that the consumer price index (CPI) in March increased 2.99 per cent against February, the smallest increase over the last three months.
Over the first quarter, inflation has hit 9.19 per cent with foodstuff price soaring by 25.92 per cent, housing and construction materials 17.94 per cent and transport and telecommunications 10.05 per cent.
“Although the CPI continued to increase at a high rate, we have seen a tendency of slow down over the last month,” said Nguyen Van Nam, former director of the Trade Study Institution.
He said that the government should continue applying tightened monetary and fiscal policies, boost production and control input material prices.
“We have seen the slow down of the CPI in March. That is a result of governmental measures which have been applied over past months,” said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung.
However, ANZ Vietnam general manager Dam Bich Thuy said: “It will be some time before the full impact of these policy changes comes on. It will be a number of months before it becomes clear whether these measures will be enough to bring down inflation.”
The government has tightened the money supply by forcing local banks to buy government bonds, capping credit growth at 30 per cent and widening the dong-dollar trading band to plus or minus two per cent.
During the last cabinet’s monthly meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered government agencies to halt the increase of fuel, electricity, transport, cement, steel, water and coal prices until June.
“This is a very good decision. We are expecting inflation to be reined in over the next few months when these measures show their full impact,” Nam said.
(By Ngoc Linh - VIR-news )