The nation’s consumer price index (CPI) this month has slowed against last month but it still remains high due to a 5.94% growth of drug and medical services, according to the General Statistics Office.

In a report announced on Wednesday, GSO said other groups in the basket of commodities used for CPI calculation grew below 1% this month.

Ten out of the eleven commodities groups in the basket saw their prices keep rising this month.

It is noted that medicine and healthcare services jumped 5.94% month-on-month even though they had experienced a sharp rise in September, at a hefty 17.2% against August. Healthcare services fees posted a surge of up to 7.78% this month, and compared to the same period last year and late 2011, prices of medicine and healthcare services have jumped more than 50%.

The education group in October kept running high, at 1.88%, with education services climbing by up to 2.1%.

Similarly, the group of housing, power, water, gas and building materials also recorded a rise of 1.09% month-on-month as gas prices were raised by an additional VND16,000 a 12-kilo container earlier this month and home rentals were revised up upon the new school year.

In the meantime, food and catering services as the most-weighted group accounting for over 40% of the basket only inched up 0.29%, with food, dining-out services and foodstuff edging up 0.37%, 0.27% and 0.28% respectively. As such, after a few months of slightly declining, foodstuff prices bounced back.

The other groups, namely transport services and textile, garment and footwear and other commodities and services, rose by 0.61%, 0.55% and 0.71% month-on-month respectively.

The remaining groups consisting of household utensils and appliances, drinks and tobacco, culture and entertainment services and tourism recorded a slight increase, at less than 0.5%.

The telecom services group alone slipped a mere 0.02% from last month.

In general, the ten-month CPI picked up 0.62% over end-2011 and marked up 7% year-on-year.

CPI in rural areas is put at 0.95% this month, higher than the rate of 0.74% in urban areas. The index in all localities surged this month, with Thai Nguyen and Khanh Hoa reporting a pickup of 4.78% and 1.45%, higher than the national average growth.

The Saigon Times Daily