Vietnam: Inflation increases in August
Consumer prices rose 0.25% over the previous month in August, slowing down from the 0.62% rise seen in July. Looking at the details of the release, prices for food increased in August. In contrast, prices for transportation dropped after growing in the previous month, while prices for healthcare grew at a more subdued pace.
Inflation came in at 2.8% in August, up from July’s 2.6%. Meanwhile, the trend was unchanged, with annual average inflation coming in at July’s 1.8% in August.
Despite a strengthening of domestic demand this year, disinflationary pressures will come from falling 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. However, the recent uptick in Covid-19 cases clouds the inflation picture ahead.