HCMC – Vietnam’s consumer price index (CPI) in the year’s first quarter edged up around 4.3% year-on-year, showed official data.

The Ministry of Finance attributed the CPI rise to a 7.2% increase in housing and construction material prices  and a pickup of 4.5% in food prices.

The increasing housing and construction material prices resulted from higher rent and input costs such as cement, steel and sand, which contributed 1.4% to the overall growth.

Meanwhile, the strong food demand during the Lunar New Year holiday in January sent food prices up, thus pushing up the CPI by 1%.

Education services edged up 11% as tuition fee support in some parts of the country had ended, resulting in an increase of 0.6% in the CPI.

The ministry has worked out three inflation scenarios for the second quarter and the rest of the year, with an average CPI growth ranging from 3.9% to 4.8% this year.