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HCM City price stabilisation scheme controls CPI increase
The Price Stabilisation programme implemented by HCM City has helped reduce the CPI (consumer price index) growth rate in HCM City and had a partial impact on national figures as well, a senior Government official in HCM City has said.
Beginning 10 years ago as a call for enterprises to have sufficient supply for goods for the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival, it has since developed into a general programme to stabilise prices of essential goods and ensure consumers get quality goods and reasonable prices, according to Nguyen Thi Hong, Deputy Chairwoman of HCM City People's Committee.
From the initial target of controling prices of essential goods, the programme has also affected prices of other commodities in the domestic market and thus helped reduce CPI growth rates across the country.
Hong said that for the three months before Tet this year, enterprises participating in the programme reserved goods valued at VND5,560 billion (US$265 million), accounting for 30 – 40 per cent of the demand of the local market in this period.
The development of the networks of stalls and shops selling goods under the programme lasting from April 2011 to 31 March 2012 had had an impact on the living standards of the low-income labourers and people in remote areas, she said.
Le Ngoc Dao, Deputy Director of HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, said so far the programme had opened 2,550 stalls, an increase of 230 compared with the beginning of this year's programme in April 2011.
The new stalls are located in surburban areas, industrial parks and export processing zones as well as in traditional markets so that goods under the programme can reach low-income workers.
The department has also co-operated with the HCM City Export Processing Zones and Industrial Parks Authority to build nine stalls at the Tan Thuan EPZ and some IPs.
New stalls are expected to be built at all 13 EPZs and IPs in the city by the end of April 2012, and goods under the programme will be delivered to the workers' canteens at these EPZs and IPs, according to Dao.
So far, the municipal authority has provided loans of VND412 billion ($19.7 million) to enterprises under the Price Stabilisation Programme. Essential goods under the programme are rice, sugar, cooking oil, processed foods, vegetable and fruits, livestock and poultry meat, eggs, and seafood and aqua-products.
At present, prices of some goods sold by the programme have decreased compared with those in April 2011. Sugar prices are down 4.65 per cent; cooking oil by 4.39 per cent and eggs by 4.44 per cent.
vietnamnews
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