(c)Chuck Kuhn PhotoHANOI, Feb 11 (AFP) - Prices of groceries and other essentials have risen ahead of the Lunar New Year in Vietnam but consumers say that is a small price to pay to please their ancestors.
Shoppers say they have come to accept inflation during the New Year period, known locally as Tet, the most important festival of the year in Vietnam.
"Prices of all products have always gone higher prior to Tet," said Nguyen Thi Hien, 61, a Hanoi housewife who had just bought leaves to make "banh chung", a sticky rice cake filled with bean paste and meat. It is traditionally offered to ancestors during Tet, which begins on Sunday.
Family feasting is also part of the annual tradition.
"It's the time for us to spend money. We have to buy the best things for the ancestors, and for family members," Hien said.
A butcher, who gave her name only as Mai, said the price of meat had gone up by about 10 percent and business had been pretty good.
"It's Tet, so prices of everything increase," she said.
Hoang Mai Hoa, 27, an office worker and mother of a four-year-old daughter, said all essential goods are about 10 percent more costly.
"Many people go shopping and goods are always sold out," she said, adding that although prices are higher, people seem ready to spend.
"For me, Tet is the most important event of the year. Within my financial capacity, I am ready to buy the best food for my family."
State media said prices have jumped even though there seems to be an adequate supply of essential goods.
While there has been no official evidence of massive shortages, "shops and vendors continually take advantage of the high demand", the state Vietnam News wrote in an editorial on Wednesday.
Companies had stockpiled enough goods to meet demand, the newspaper quoted Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Cam Tu, as saying.
Overall demand for goods had risen by 10 percent against a year ago, Tu said in the report.
Vietnam's economy rebounded from the global financial crisis and grew 5.32 percent last year but observers have expressed concern about a return to high inflation, which reached an annual 23 percent in 2008.
Consumer prices rose 6.88 percent in 2009, and were up 7.62 percent year-on-year in January, official figures showed.
While meat and other goods have become more expensive before Tet, clothes-seller Nguyen Van Anh said she has had to discount her stock because of unseasonably warm weather.
"The business this year is pretty bad. We have prepared, as usual, all the warm clothes for a cold Tet," Anh said.
But with recent summer-like temperatures, which residents say have been about 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) above normal, no one has been buying.
"I could not sell anything over the past two weeks," she said. (By Tran Thi Minh Ha/ AFP)
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