At the press conference (Photo: VNA)

Huong attributed the rise primarily to a surge in domestic rice prices. This increase mirrored a rise in export rice prices and was further fueled by higher demand for glutinous and jasmine rice varieties during the Kitchen Gods' Day and Lunar New Year holidays. The rice price jumped 21.71% annually during the quarter, pushing up the overall CPI by 0.55 percentage points.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile items like food, energy, and health and education services, remained relatively stable, rising 2.81% annually in the first quarter.

Looking at monthly figures, the March CPI rose 1.12% compared to December 2023 and 3.97% year-on-year. However, it did see a slight decrease of 0.23% compared to February.

Prices of water, electricity, education, medicines, and health services recorded respective increases of 10.58%, 9.38%, 9.02% and 6.51%.

Meanwhile, those of food and dining services, education, and transportation all decreased slightly on a month-on-month basis, by 0.76%, 0.29%, and 0.03%, respectively.

Year-on-year comparisons also revealed a 1.47% decline in the cost of postal and telecommunication services.

On a different note, the prices of gold and US dollars experienced significant increases in March, rising 22.71% and 4.32% year-on-year, respectively.