CPI for October records slight increase

This increase can be attributed to a hike occurring in the price of education services, coupled with the impact of natural disasters which have recently struck the country's central provinces.

These statistics indicate that October's CPI recorded an annual increase of 2.47%, while the average CPI during the opening ten months of the year rose by 3.71% compared to the same period last year.

Among 11 different categories of goods and services, six witnessed rising prices, including education which rose by 1.35%, housing and construction materials with a rise of 0.29%, beverages and tobacco up by 0.08%, garment and textiles up 0.06%, medicine and medical services up 0.01%. In addition, maintenance and home repair services saw increase of 0.15% and 0.2%, respectively.

Furthermore, other commodity and services groups also witnessed a decrease in their price indexes, including culture, entertainment, and tourism which fell by 0.18%, food and catering services which dropped by 0.13%, transportation down 0.08%, and the post and telecommunications group which declined by 0.03%. Elsewhere, the prices of home appliances and equipment remained unchanged.

Domestic gold prices also saw fluctuations in line with the global prices of the gold price index in October, with a decrease of 1.1% compared to September and an increased of 30.91% from December, 2019, up 29.63% from the same period last year.

According to the GSO's report, the inflation rate in October increased by 0.07% compared to September and 1.88% from the same period last year, with ten-month inflation rising by 2.52% on-year.