Vietnam's blistering economic growth is attracting foreign investors, but the boom is proving costly for households, which face big rises in the price of basic products such as rice. Consumer prices rose 9.34 percent year-on-year in October, after an 8.8 percent increase in September, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Inflation is worrying Hanoi, which aims to keep the rate below the growth in gross domestic product. Vietnam's economy grew by 8.16 percent in the first nine months of the year. The alarm bells grew louder this week as the national assembly seized on the issue, with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung saying: "We want a higher economic growth and a lower inflation rate."

The price of food, which forms more than 40 percent of the basket of goods used to calculate Vietnam's inflation rate, rose 13.94 percent in October. The cost of rice and other grains alone increased by 15.98 percent.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007