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Vietnam inflation slows for second straight month
Vietnam's inflation eased slightly for a second consecutive month in October, official estimates showed Monday, as the country battles Asia's fastest-rising prices.
The consumer price index (CPI) rose 21.59 percent year-on-year in the month, according to the General Statistics Office, from 22.4 percent in September when the rate slowed for the first time in more than a year after a 23 percent peak in August.
Food prices continued to stoke inflation, increasing 31.72 percent in October from a year earlier.
Vietnam, which has this year refocused attention away from economic growth and towards stabilisation, was last month forced to raise its 2011 inflation target to 18 percent, from 15 percent, as prices soar.
Both the International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank project a year-average inflation rate of almost 19 percent.
The country is faced with an economy beset by double-digit consumer price rises, dwindling foreign reserves and a weakening currency.
Officials have ushered in a series of measures, including raising key interest rates, vowing to cut state spending, and ordering that loan growth stay below 20 percent.
Last week Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung gave a 2012 inflation target of below 10 percent.
AFP
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