Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Hanoi – Hanoi’s consumer price index (CPI) in January inched up by only 0.35 per cent month-on-month and 3.09 per cent year-on-year, the municipal Statistics Office has reported.

Among the 11 commodity groups, nine saw month-on-month increases, with the highest recorded in transport services (1.14 per cent) as a result of hikes in oil and gas prices in the month, followed by beverages and tobacco (1.01 per cent).

Restaurant and catering services edged up by 0.93 per cent, and the group of cultural, entertainment and tourism activities increased by 0.57 per cent.

The slight increases were seen in other groups like garments, footwear and headwear with 0.22 per cent; household utensils, 0.21 per cent; education equipment, 0.03 per cent; medicines and medical services, 0.02 per cent; and goods and other services, 0.57 per cent.

Meanwhile, prices of housing, electricity, water, fuel and construction materials, and postal and telecom services slightly dropped by 0.69 per cent and 0.01 per cent, respectively.

Gold prices rose 0.65 per cent month-on-month and 1.96 per cent year-on-year, while the US dollar price was down 2.24 per cent from December and up 3.4 per cent against the same period last year.

According to the office, the capital city welcomed some 374,000 tourists in January, up 3 per cent from the previous month and 3.5 times higher than the figure recorded in the corresponding time last year.

Of the holidaymakers, around 245,000 were foreigners, a 16-fold rise year-on-year, mainly from the Republic of Korea (RoK), Japan, the US, China, the UK, Singapore, France, Germany, Thailand, and Malaysia.