AsemconnectVietnam - The world oil price has inched up in recent months, placing pressure on inflation in Vietnam, the National Financial Supervisory Committee (NFSC) said.

NFSC said in a macro-economic report that inflation in the country has been on the rise since September last year due to the rising prices of world oil and domestic public services. Inflation in 2017 will be higher than in 2016 if agencies do not take bold steps to put a new cycle of inflation under control.

The report showed February’s inflation grew 0.69 percent compared to the beginning of this year but a hefty 5.02 percent over the same period last year, driven by a price increase of 9.97 percent in the transport group over the year-earlier period. Domestic retail prices of fuels in January grew around 13 percent year-on-year, sending transport costs surging.

Higher inflationary pressure resulted from healthcare and educational services price rises of 57.21 percent and 10.07 percent against the year-earlier period in a number of provinces and cities as part of their road maps to adjust up prices of public services.

Core inflation in February expanded 1.51 percent year-on-year but the country’s inflation has steadily grown since last September due to periodical and seasonal factors.

NFSC said inflation often rose in the month coinciding with the Lunar New Year holiday (Tet). There will be a new cycle of inflation after prices of public services are revised up, contributing some 2.4 percentage points to last month’s inflation.

Notably, inflation started to go up in September last year, NFSC said. The committee added the long-term growth of inflation last month was 0.6 percentage point higher than in February last year.

The factors would make this year’s inflation higher than in 2016 if they are not put under control, NFSC said.

Speaking at a recent government cabinet meeting in Hanoi, prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc assigned deputy prime minister Vuong Dinh Hue to tell the State Bank of Vietnam and the ministries of planning-investment, finance, industry-trade, health and education-training to find ways to achieve the inflation growth target of no higher than 4 percent this year.

Source: Intellasia.net