The latest CPI figure of the capital city, the steepest rise since April last year, represented a 5.4 percent increase in 2012 and a 6.49 percent year-on-year rise.

In September, only the group of post and telecommunications services remained unchanged, while ten other groups of commodities and services used for the CPI calculation started to pick up.

The biggest price spike was in the groups of school fees and educational costs with 34.06 percent due to the rise of tuition fees at state-owned/ private schools and kindergartens.

It was followed by transport services and housing, electricity, fuel and construction materials, as higher petroleum prices in August drove housing and utility costs up by 2.16 percent.

According to experts, the monthly average CPI rise of Hanoi was 0.59 percent since the beginning of this year.

Excluding from the CPI, the price of gold and US dollar inched up 4.76 percent and 0.03 percent against August.

The same situation also took place in the southern economic hub of HCMC.

HCMC’s September CPI, for the first time over the past six months, edged up 1 percent due to the increase of 6.77 percent in education and 4.12 percent in transportation costs against the previous month.

September CPI went up 3.38 percent in 2012 and 4.63 percent year on year, according to the General Statistical Office of HCMC.

Education has experienced the highest rise due to increased expenses for the beginning of the new school year. Therefore, the sheer hike of tuition and other related fees in September pushed education cost to jump 7.32 percent within 2012 from a slight rise in the first 8 months of this year.

August alone saw petrol price soar three times by VND2,650 dong, driving transport costs up by 4.12 percent.

As such, education and transport were the two groups experiencing the hike of above 7 percent over that by the end of December, 2011.

Meanwhile cooking and catering services, which are traditionally the most-weighted group in the basket of commodities with about 40 percent, inched up merely 0.35 percent in September. 

However, food price saw the largest increase of 1.03 percent, while foodstuff picked up 0.33 percent and dining-out services edged up 0.08 percent over the previous month.

The prices of the remaining eight groups also began to pick up, ranging from 0.28 percent to 1.84 percent.

Gold price has seen remarkable increase of 6.4 percent, the highest over the past year, while US dollar price inched up merely 0.21 percent.

The fear of deflation haunted the country as price rise started to slow down from April, but the risk of inflation reignited last month.

September CPI figures in Hanoi and HCMC also reflected the fast rate of price increase since April 2011, signaling the possible return of inflation from now to the year-end.

Source: Tuoitrenews