The consumer price index (CPI) in October increased 0.08% from last month and 3.59% from a year earlier, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported on Sunday.

Increased education fees and rice prices are blamed for the CPI rise.

Core inflation in the month rose 4.38% compared to the same period last year.

According to the GSO, nine of the 11 groups of goods and services saw price hikes including education services (up 2.25%), housing and building materials (0.27%), water ( 0.48%), house repairing services (0.29%), drinks and tobacco (0.15%), restaurants and food services ( 0.06%), and household appliance (0.03%).

Telecommunications and transportation saw a drop of 0.11% and 1.51%.

The GSO pointed out that core inflation in October increased by 0.09% over the previous month, up 3.43% over the same period last year.

On average, in the first ten months of 2023, core inflation increased by 4.38% compared to the same period in 2022, higher than the general average CPI increase of 3.2%.

The main reason is that the average domestic petrol price in the ten months of 2023 decreased by 13.24% over the same period last year, and gas prices decreased by 8.55%.