Hanoi (dpa) – Vietnam's consumer price index rose 1.37 percent month-on-month in February, the biggest jump in six months, authorities said Friday. Rising prices are one of the main economic concerns in Vietnam, where the government said it has been trying to keep monthly inflation within one percent since August. February's increase was driven by rising prices for food, construction materials and textiles, the General Statistics Office said. The figures brought accumulative inflation for the first two months of the year to 2.38 percent. Year-on-year inflation slowed to 16.44 percent in February compared with the 17.27 percent pace reported in January. The Vietnamese government has set a target of single-digit inflation this year after failing to contain price rises in 2011. In December, prices rose 18.6 per cent year-on-year, the highest jump in Asia. The government had announced at the beginning of 2011 that it would try to keep price rises below 7 percent for the year. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/wrRGC Tags: Economy, Inflation, Vietnam Section: East Asia
