The August consumer price index (CPI) in Hanoi rose by 2.5% in comparison to the same period last year, while suffering a small decline of 0.19% from December last year, according to figures released by the Hanoi Statistics Office.

The average CPI of the capital during the opening eight months of the year enjoyed an annual rise of 3.39%, the office said. 

August saw seven out of 11 commodity groups enjoy price increases from the previous month, with a strong rise of 0.86% recorded in categories such as housing, electricity, water, fuel, and construction materials.

This recent hike can be attributed to the prolonged period of hot weather throughout the north, leading to increased consumption of both electricity and water.

Moreover, food and catering services groups rose by 0.19%, largely due to the novel coronavirus outbreak in early August causing local people to hoard food.

Elsewhere, the transport category also witnessed an upward trend with a rise of 0.17% from the previous month, with petrol and oil prices increasing by 0.42%, while other goods and services rose by 0.14%.

Three out of the 11 commodity groups endured a decline in prices, including home appliances (down 0.04%), post and telecommunications (0.07%), and culture, entertainment and tourism ( 0.16%).

Most notably, the gold price index during August saw an increase of 8.9% from last month, raising its eight month average by 25.61% on-year.

Meanwhile, the US$ price index also edged down by 0.07% from the previous month, with the average index rising by 0.24% annually.