The Vietnamese government will make every effort to keep this year’s inflation at 11.75 percent, a similar level to last year, said Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc.

Speaking at the Vietnam Business Summit during the Asian Development Bank (ADB) 44th Annual Meeting in Hanoi on May 3, Minister Phuc affirmed that the Vietnamese government gives top priority to fighting inflation.

According to the minister, the country’s CPI rose to 9.64 percent in the first four months of 2011, compared to a level of 7 percent set for the whole year, posing a big challenge for the country to curb inflation in the remaining months of the year, especially in the context of fluctuations in market prices.

Due to high inflation, the Government now sets this year’s GDP growth rate at 6.5 percent, slower than the initial target of 7-7.5 percent, Phuc said.

The Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Van Giau explained that almost all countries worldwide were facing difficulties when implementing their initial targets, which had been set before spikes in the price of farm produces, political unrest in Africa, and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

In early April, ADB forecast Vietnam’s inflation at 13.3 percent in 2011 while lowering the country’s GDP growth rate to 6.1 percent from a level of 7 percent it announced in September, 2010.

Source: VOV