Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s consumer price index (CPI) fell 0.12% month-on-month in July, mainly driven by lower domestic fuel prices in line with global trends and falling food prices amid abundant supply, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Finance.

The July CPI increased 3.08% from December 2025 and 4.45% year-on-year. Average CPI in the first seven months rose 4.39% year-on-year, while core inflation increased 4.19%.

Of 11 major groups of consumer goods and services, eight recorded price hikes and three saw declines in July.

The NSO said several commodity baskets contributed significantly to the CPI increase during the January-July period. Housing, electricity, water, fuel and construction materials rose 6.72% year-on-year, adding 1.53 percentage points to overall CPI. Transport prices increased 5.01%, contributing 0.5 percentage points, while food and catering services rose 4.77%, adding 1.71 percentage points.

The price of pork increased 4.54%, while that of poultry meat rose 4.42%. Eating-out services climbed 7.01% amid higher input and service costs.

The NSO noted that CPI growth has gradually eased in recent months. After reaching 5.46% year-on-year in April, it fell to 4.69% in June and 4.45% in July.

Average CPI growth in the first seven months was higher than the 3.26% recorded in the same period last year, mainly due to higher fuel and cooking gas prices, as well as increases in housing, utilities, construction materials, food and catering services amid rising input costs and recovering consumer demand.

Meanwhile, domestic gold prices fell 3.02% month-on-month in July but remained 19.15% higher year-on-year. The domestic US dollar price index edged up 0.18% from the previous month.

Core inflation rose 0.33% month-on-month and 4.63% year-on-year in July. Its seven-month average increase of 4.19% remained below headline CPI growth, as fuel, gas and food prices, which are excluded from the core inflation calculation, exerted upward pressure on overall inflation./.