Vietnam’s consumer price index (CPI) in August surged 0.83 percent from July, 0.23 percent higher than the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s expectation of 0.6 percent.

With the recently announced CPI data, the country’s inflation indicator soared 7.5 percent over the same period last year and 3.53 percent in the first 7 months of this year.

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), 10 out of the 11 goods and service categories used for the CPI calculation saw price hikes between 0.22 and 4.11 percent. Among them, the highest hike was the group of medicine and healthcare services, while the lowest one was the group of household appliances.

“Two petrol price adjustments in June and one in July resulted in a 0.08 percent increase in the CPI,” the Vietnam News Agency quoted Nguyen Duc Thang, head of the GSO’s Price Statistics, as saying.

“The price of food rose due to the heavy and consecutive rainstorms nationwide,” he added.

In addition, the prices of education services saw a month-on-month surge of 0.9 percent as tuition fees for the new school year were increased in several cities and provinces.

Excluding from the CPI calculation, the price of gold also witnessed a slight increase, while the US dollar price was stable, standing at VND21,036 per dollar, in August.

Previously, in a meeting on July 30, the Ministry of Industry and Trade predicted that the August CPI may double the expectation, rising 0.6 percent if Hanoi raised hospital fees. The Hanoi’s authorities did so one day later.

In August, commodity markets will be affected by many factors, including unfavorable weather condition affecting the price of food-foodstuffs, the devaluation of the Vietnam dong, higher fuel prices on world markets, and the start of a new school year, said the ministry.

Especially, the petrol hike price on July 17 was expected to contribute to a 0.1-0.15 percent month-on-month increase in the CPI in August, it said.

Nine days earlier, the GSO announced that the CPI in July rose 0.27 percent against June, the largest increase in the past 5 months. If compared to that in December 2012, the CPI increased by 2.68 percent, and by 7.29 percent if compared with the same period last year.