Vietnam’s inflation rate, already one of the world’s highest, accelerated for the 11th straight month this month, according to official estimates released yesterday.
The consumer price index (CPI) is expected to rise 22 percent this month compared with July last year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said, as food costs soar. Inflation was reported at 20.82 percent year-on-year last month.
Vietnam, long focused on economic growth, has shifted its efforts toward stabilizing an economy facing a slew of challenges including rising inflation, a struggling currency and trade deficit.
Photo: EPA
The CPI began to accelerate in September last year and prices have continued to rise, although inflation is still below a recent peak of 28.3 percent seen in August 2008 and far from the triple-digit figures seen in the 1980s.
Food prices, which climbed 23.8 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of the year, jumped 32.6 percent this month compared with July last year, according to the GSO figures.
“The risk of high inflation, an unstable macro-economy and how to ensure social security have become huge challenges for the our economy in 2011,” -Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung told a national assembly meeting on Thursday.
He added that the government would be “patient, but determined” in curbing inflation so that the year-end figure would be between 15 percent and 17 percent.
In May, the UN said the country had one of the five highest inflation rates in the world.
Vietnam’s efforts to bring stability to its economy have included raising key interest rates, vowing to cut state spending by 10 percent and ordering that growth in credit, or loans, stays below 20 percent.
The government is also trying to control the gold trade and -reduce the prevalence of US dollars in the economy.
Vietnam’s economic growth eased slightly to 5.6 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, a little below the country’s target of around 6 percent by the end of the year.
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