HANOI (Vietnam News/ANN): Keeping inflation in check was among the top priorities for the Government this year, said Prime Minister NguyEn XuAn Phuc at a meeting with the Steering Committee on Price Management in Hanoi i on Wednesday (July 1) in which Government agencies and officials discussed price management for key commodities and services in 2020.
Phuc insisted on the importance of keeping inflation under 4 per cent, an objective set by the National Assembly (NA), saying the country must aim at maintaining growth, employment and social security.
Meanwhile, Vietnam must stay vigilant to prevent a second Covid-19 wave to protect public health.
“People must not go hungry and desperate during this time of the pandemic,” he said.
Another top priority was food security, especially against a backdrop of an increasing number of natural disasters such as floods and droughts.
He urged the committee to carefully study measures to strike a balance between growth and inflation for the third and fourth quarters of 2020, emphasising the need to rein in inflation.
“Growth at the expense of high inflation is still a failure,” he said.
Vietnam’s CPI for June increased by 0.66 per cent, according to the Ministry of Finance. CPI has been on the decrease from 6.54 per cent to reach 4.19 per cent on average for the first six months of 2020, nearing the NA’s 4 per cent target. – Vietnam News/Asia News Network
