Flexible price management needed to control inflation

In 2018, the Vietnamese government aims to control the consumer price index at about 4% and adjust State policies such as interest rate reduction, thus helping alleviate hurdles for businesses.

According to Nguyen Tien Thoa, Deputy Chairman/Secretary General of Vietnam Valuation Association, ​there are latent risks such as natural disasters and weather, and price hike of energy and resource groups on the global market have affected domestic gas and oil retail prices, an input of manufacturing sectors.

In the first month of 2018, increases in electricity and petroleum prices pushed consumer price index to 0.51% higher than that in December 2017.

Nguyen Anh Duong, Head of Macro Economic Policy of Central Institute for Economic Management says some factors possibly affecting inflation control are price adjustments of State-owned goods such as electricity price or price hikes in 2018 thereby putting higher pressure on inflation and the government as well as people.

Economic expert  PhD. Nguyen Minh Phong underscores the need to pay special attention to keep a check on inflation in 2018 as it’s part of 2017’s growth result as well as the easy-money policy of Vietnam and the world.

More initiatives and effective measures should be taken to ensure market stability and keep inflation below 4% as targeted, he notes.