Prices have risen by 1.68 percent in Ho Chi Minh City in February, according to the city’s Statistics Office.

The consumer price index (CPI) for the city is up 2.97 percent for the year.

The surge in demand for entertainment and recreation activities during Tet this month drove the prices of culture-entertainment-tourism services up by 3 percent.

Of the other items in the CPI basket, food and restaurant prices rose 2.66 percent.

Other goods and services, beverages and tobacco, housing-electricity-water-fuel-building materials, and transport services recorded rises of 2.23 percent, 2.06 percent, 2.1 percent and 1.37 percent.

The city’s CPI last month rose by 1.27 percent over the previous month, up 9.05 percent year-on-year.

The CPI rise, however, comes even without the fuel price hike of around VND600 (3.1 US cents) effected last Sunday, since it was calculated last week, according to Thoi Bao Kinh Te Sai Gon Online (The Saigon Economic Times Online).

Vu Dinh Anh, deputy general director of the Ministry of Finance’s Institute for Market and Price, described March as the most sensitive month and a barometer for the year.

Only if the index rises by 0.5 percent or less during the month can full-year inflation be kept to a single digit, he warned. It remains to be seen by how much the fuel price hike will affect the index in March.

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