CPI drops 0.53% in May

The CPI jumped by 0.37% over December 2016. In the first five months, the CPI witnessed a year-on-year growth of 4.47%.

Illustration photo. (Photo: VGP)

Specifically, 7 out of 11 groups of commodities saw stable costs, including goods and services (up 0.15%); culture, entertainment and tourism (up 0.13%); household utensils and equipment (up 0.1%); beverage and tobacco (up 0.08%); garments and textiles, hats, footwear (up 0.05%); medicines and health services (up 0.04%); and education (up 0.02%).

4 out of 11 groups of commodities witnessed declining costs, such as restaurants and service (1.43%); transport (0.34%); post and telecom (0.05%); housing and building materials (down 0.02%).

The GSO attributed the CPI drop to lower costs of foodstuff (down 0.06%); food (down 2.27%); and petrol price cut (down 0.03%).

This was the lowest CPI rise in May over the last 10 years. On average, inflation rate was 1.56% in May. Thus, the CPI growth rate of 0.53% was lower than the preset goal of 1.6-1.8%, showing signs of stable monetary policies.