VietNamNet Bridge - On September 3, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung and representatives from the Ministries of Finance, Planning and Investment, Commerce and Industry, Agriculture and Rural Development, the State Bank, the Government Office held a meeting to discuss solutions to control price hikes and inflation for the rest of the year.

September’s CPI reduced over that of the previous months

According to a report released by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), CPI increased 0.51 percent in September, lower than that of the previous months. In the first nine months, CPI increased 7.32 percent over that of December 2006. Of this, foodstuffs rose 12.18 percent, housing and building materials, 9.66 percent, and services, by 6 percent. The exchange rate of VND over USD remained stable and although the domestic gold price had surged, it was still lower that that in the world market.

However, according to the ministries, prices of major commodities that had seen import tariffs had only stopped rising but showed no signs of dropping. This has put pressure on the ministries to find solutions to control export and import activities more closely to balance the supply and demand.

Deputy PM Hung said that it was quite common for CPI in the final three months of the year to be higher than that of the previous months. Therefore, ministries and branches have to curb a surge in CPI surge in October and November to 0.3 percent and December at below 0.4 percent in order to keep CPI for the whole year at 8.2-8.3 percent, lower than GDP growth.

Prioritizing solutions to attract investment capital

Discussing solutions to curb CPI rises and inflation from now until the end of the year, PM Hung said that the issuing of bonds at various levels will draw in foreign currency, intensifying capital for investment and development.

The Deputy PM affirmed that money in circulation was mainly channelled into the commodity and real estate market, thus the issuing of initial public offerings (IPO) by privatized businesses is badly needed in order to increase the amount of money going into the securities market.

The Deputy PM also asked ministries, branches, and localities to strictly keep stable the prices of some major commodities such as electricity, oil, coal, cement, iron and steel, fertilizer, paper, water, post and telecommunication, and transport.

Continuing to control market prices

Over the past time, research by the inspection group from the MoF showed that the prices of some major commodities has still not fallen as they were supposed to. The Deputy PM asked ministries and branches to continue to find out what has caused the price increases on commodities and services.

Ministries and branches must coordinate with the localities to inspect market prices as well as activities such as supply and demand and listed prices in order to avoid commercial speculation and fraudulent business practices.

The Deputy PM also directed the Ministry of Health, in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, to promote food safety and hygiene and to closely manage the cost of medicine prices as regulated.  

(Source: Government’s website)