HANOI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's consumer price index (CPI) is expected to rise by 0.23 percent in February 2017 compared to the previous month and up 5.02 percent year-on-year, said the country's General Statistics Office (GSO) on Tuesday.
Of 11 groups of goods and commodities in the CPI calculation basket, seven groups are likely to have increasing prices during the month.
Group of housing and construction materials has the highest price hike of 0.77 percent compared to January while that of home appliances experiences the smallest climb of 0.05 percent.
Meanwhile, other groups whose prices go down in February include post and telecommunication services (down 0.07 percent over January), garment, hats, footwear (down 0.05 percent) as well as beverage and tobacco (down 0.01 percent).
Only group of education has unchanged price during the month, said GSO.
Do Thi Ngoc, deputy head of GSO's Price Statistics Department, said the February CPI rise was mainly due to increasing consumption demand of local people following the Lunar New Year holiday as well as in other festive events in the first lunar month of the Year of Rooster.
This year, the Lunar New Year holiday started on Jan. 26 and ended on Feb. 1, 2017 in Vietnam.
In addition, the rise in domestic prices of medical service, petroleum, and railway also contributed to the CPI hike in February, said Ngoc.
