Vietnam: Inflation comes in at highest level since September 2020 in May
Consumer prices rose 0.16% over the previous month in May, swinging from April’s 0.04% drop. The bounce back in price pressures was primarily driven rising house prices, as well as by a more moderate decrease in food prices.
Inflation ticked up to 2.9% in May, above April’s 2.7% and marking the highest inflation rate since September 2020. Annual average inflation in April was unchanged at 1.9%, where it has remained for the past three months.
Looking ahead, despite a strengthening of domestic demand this year, disinflationary pressures will come from falling food costs, particularly pork prices as herd sizes continue to recover from the African swine fever outbreak that affected the domestic pig population during the past year. As such, our panelists see inflation averaging slightly lower this year than in 2020 and well below the State Bank of Vietnam’s 4.0% target.