Nation records 5.03% GDP growth, single digit CPI

The country's Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 6.81 percent this December compared to the same time last year, meeting the Government's target of controlling inflation rate at a single-digit level this year, the GSO reported.

The rate was much lower than 2011's figure of 18.13 percent. However, the average CPI for this year was up 9.21 percent over the average index of 2011, according to the office.

December's CPI increased 0.27 percent month-on-month, although prices of garment and foot-wear products went up a significant 1.17 percent due to rising demand ahead of the New Year holidays.

Many groups of goods experienced insignificant price increase in December, including medicine and healthcare services, up 0.14 percent, and education, increasing 0.09 percent.

Director of the GSO's Integrated Statistics Department, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Van, said that the low CPI increased of 6.81 percent was a result of the Government's management, particularly thanks to Instruction No. 25/CT-TTg issued on September 26, 2012 by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to strengthen price administration and stabilisation.

Van noted that domestic market prices witnessed some extraordinary developments this year, with prices increasing only a moderate 1-1.37 percent in the first two months, compared to the usual trend of them rising over 2 percent during this period due to surging demand in the days of Lunar New Year.

Prices went up the most sharply in September, at 2.2 percent, due to global economic declines, causing slumping domestic demand and increasing inventories, low credit growth, high bad debt ratios and a frozen property market, she said.

For the whole year, prices of educational goods and services posted the sharpest increase, at over 17 percent, closely followed by medicine and healthcare services, at 16.34 percent.

Gold prices in December increased 7.83 percent year-on-year, while US dollar prices have witnessed the most stable year ever, increasing only 0.18 percent in 2012, according to the GSO.

This year, total development investment capital disbursement was estimated at 989.3 trillion VND (or around 47.6 billion USD), representing a 7 percent rise against last year. The figure was equivalent to 33.5 percent of GDP (at current prices), which reflected the lowest ratio since 2000.

The country made a trade surplus of 284 million USD this year after 20 years of facing a deficit, according to the GSO.

Export turnover for the year totalled 114.631 billion USD, an increase of 18.3 percent over last year while import revenue reached 114.347 billion USD, representing a rise of 7.1 percent.

The previous trade surplus recorded was in 1992 at 100 million USD.
In 2013, the country will face a number of difficulties originating from the current difficult situation of both domestic and international economics, said the GSO and the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Accordingly, ministries and branches at all levels need to effectively implement the measures and solutions put forth by the government, focusing on fiscal and monetary policies, business operation, economic restructure, and growth model renovation.