Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted economies and commoditymarkets globally, including Vietnam, and domestic prices willcontinue to fluctuate and be more closely linked to the fluctuations of rawmaterial and fuel prices on the world market.

At the 10th session,the 14th National Assembly set a target of an average consumer price index(CPI) growth rate of about 4 percent.

Economistsforecast that there were many factors to make the consumer price index(CPI) increase this year.

Notably, theprices of many types of raw materials and fuels on the world market areexpected to hike again when the COVID-19 pandemic in the world is graduallycontrolled, COVID-19 vaccines are distributed on a large scale and production,trade and international exchanges recover.

Dr NguyenNgoc Tuyen from the Academy of Finance predicted that the price of manyessential goods would fluctuate this year, so the CPI would be higher than lastyear, but the average for the whole year would be below 4 percent, the targetset by the National Assembly.

Nguyen AnhTuan, Director of the Price Management Department under the Ministry ofFinance, said there would be some factors that adversely affect the pricesituation this year such as fuel and petroleum product prices had changedcontinuously.

Essentialgoods, including pork, could also be impacted if the disease was not controlledwell, he said.

However, inthe opposite direction, amid many factors related to the pandemic and theaggregate demand of the economy unlikely to recover to levels seenpre-pandemic, the market prices of essential goods are not expected to havelarge fluctuations in general.

Therefore,Tuan said it was necessary to forecast both difficulties and advantages toprepare appropriate measures.

Authoritiesplan to strengthen management and inspection of the observance of the law onprices and of compliance with the laws on taxes and fees and to strictly managethe listing of prices and selling at listed prices of items with high demandduring holidays.

In addition,authorities will closely monitor developments and implement solutions tobalance supply and demand to stabilise the market and prices.

At the sametime, there should be specific operation solutions for commodities such aspetroleum.

Specifically,the Ministry of Industry and Trade must work with the Ministry of Finance tocontrol the price of petroleum, taking into account market factors and workingwith the petrol price stabilisation fund, he said.

Forelectricity products, it would be necessary to carefully evaluate the costfactor affecting the price to consider the impact on electricity prices, Tuannoted./.