Average CPI for Q3 2024 increased by 3.48% year-on-year. In the first nine months of this year, CPI rose by 3.88% compared to the same period last year, with core inflation up by 2.69%.
In the 0.29% increase in the CPI for September 2024 compared to the previous month, there were nine groups of goods and services with rising price indices and two groups with falling price indices.
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Rate of increase/decrease in CPI for September 2024 compared to the previous month
Source: General Statistics Office
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The nine groups of goods and services that saw a rise in their price indices were education; food and catering services; housing, electricity, water, fuel, and construction materials; garments, hats, and footwear; household appliances and utensils; postal and telecommunication services; medicine and healthcare services; beverages and tobacco; and other goods and services.
The two groups that experienced a decrease in their price indices were culture, entertainment, and tourism; and transportation.
The average CPI for Q3 2024 rose by 3.48% year-on-year, with the following increases: Medicine and healthcare services by 8.24%; other goods and services by 6.94%; education by 5.4%; housing, electricity, water, fuel, and construction materials by 4.98%; food and catering services by 3.98%; beverages and tobacco by 2.4%; culture, entertainment, and tourism by 2.21%; garments, hats, and footwear by 1.24%; household appliances and utensils by 1.15%. However, postal and telecommunication services decreased by 0.74%, and transportation by 0.88%.
The average CPI for the first nine months of 2024 increased by 3.88% year-on-year due to several main reasons:
Firstly, the price index of the food and catering services group rose by 4% in the first nine months of 2024, contributing to a 1.34 percentage point increase in the overall CPI. This included a 14.23% increase in the price index for foodstuffs (impacting a 0.52 percentage point rise in CPI) due to a rise in export rice prices as global rice supplies diminished due to climate change, and increased consumer demand during festivals, holidays, and natural disasters (resulting in a 0.48 percentage point increase in CPI). Additionally, the price index for food rose by 2.31% (impacting a 0.49 percentage point rise in CPI), and the price index for catering services outside the home rose by 4.03% due to increased consumer demand and labor costs.
The price index for housing, electricity, water, fuel, and construction materials rose by 5.33%, contributing a full percentage point to the overall CPI. This was mainly due to a 4.61% increase in the price index for rented accommodation and owner-occupied housing (impacting a 0.48 percentage point rise in CPI); and an 8.08% increase in the price index for electricity (impacting a 0.27 percentage point rise in CPI) due to increased electricity demand and EVN’s adjustment of retail electricity prices in 2023. Moreover, the price index for water supply rose by 9.42% year-on-year in the first nine months.
The price index for education rose by 7.51%, contributing 0.46 percentage points to the overall CPI. This increase was due to some provinces and centrally-run cities raising tuition fees for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years.
The price index for medicine and healthcare services rose by 7.46%, contributing 0.4 percentage points to the overall CPI. This change was due to adjustments in healthcare service prices according to Circular No. 22/2023/TT-BYT issued by the Ministry of Health, effective from November 17, 2023.
Finally, the price index for transportation rose by 1.87%, contributing 0.18 percentage points to the overall CPI. This was mainly due to a 46.67% increase in public transportation service prices and a 4.3% rise in vehicle maintenance costs.
On the other hand, a factor that helped curb the CPI increase in the first nine months of 2024 was the 1.19% decrease in the price index for postal and telecommunication services due to reduced prices for older-generation phones as businesses offered discounts and promotions for newer smartphone models introduced to the market after a period of time.
Core inflation in September 2024 rose by 0.27% compared to the previous month and by 2.54% year-on-year. In the first nine months of 2024, core inflation increased by 2.69% compared to the same period in 2023, lower than the overall CPI increase of 3.88%. This was mainly due to the fact that the prices of foodstuffs, electricity, educational services, healthcare services, and gasoline, which contributed to the rise in CPI, were excluded from the basket of goods used to calculate core inflation.
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