Inflation in the first quarter of 2025 increased by 3.01%, prices of drugs and medical services increased

According to the report of the General Statistics Office (Ministry of Finance) released on the morning of April 6, the CPI in the first quarter of 2025 increased compared to the same period last year, of which 8 indexes increased and 3 indexes decreased.

Specifically, the price index of the group of drugs and medical services increased the most, up 14.4% (causing the general CPI to increase by 0.78 percentage points) due to the adjustment of medical service prices according to Circular No. 21/2024/TT-BYT dated October 17, 2024 of the Ministry of Health.

Next, the price index of the housing, electricity, water, fuel and construction materials group increased by 5.11% (making the overall CPI increase by 0.96 percentage points) due to the increase in prices of cement, iron, steel, sand following the increase in input materials and rental prices. Of which, the price index of the household electricity group increased by 5.11% (contributing to the overall CPI increase by 0.17 percentage points) due to increased demand for electricity and the Vietnam Electricity Group adjusting the average retail electricity price from October 11, 2024.

The price index of food and catering services increased by 3.78% (contributing to the general CPI increase by 1.27 percentage points), of which the price index of pork increased by 12.49% (impacting the general CPI increase by 0.42 percentage points) due to supply shortage while consumer demand increased during holidays and Tet; the rice price index increased by 0.97%; the fresh poultry price index increased by 1.06%.

The price index of the culture, entertainment and tourism group increased by 2.16% (contributing to the general CPI increase by 0.1 percentage point).

In addition, a number of factors contributed to curbing the CPI growth rate in the first quarter of 2025, specifically, the transport group index decreased by 2.4% (contributing to a decrease in the overall CPI of 0.23 percentage points), of which gasoline prices decreased by 9.73%; passenger transport services by rail decreased by 6.06%.

The education group price index decreased by 0.61% (contributing to a 0.04 percentage point decrease in the general CPI) because in the 2024-2025 school year, a number of provinces and centrally-run cities exempted or reduced tuition fees for subjects according to regulations.

The price index of the post and telecommunications group decreased by 0.59% (contributing to a 0.02 percentage point decrease in the overall CPI) due to the decrease in the price of old-generation phones when businesses applied discount programs to stimulate demand for smartphones that have been on the market for a while.

On average, in the first quarter of 2025, core inflation increased by 3.01% over the same period last year, lower than the average CPI (up 3.22%), mainly due to the prices of food, foodstuffs, electricity, and medical services, which are factors affecting the CPI increase but are excluded from the list of goods for calculating core inflation.