In the first nine months of 2025, the global goods market experienced strong volatility driven by political, economic and social factors across many countries. The GSO noted that the world economy remained unpredictable, amid rising trade tensions and protectionist measures by the United States and retaliatory actions from the e conomies.
Domestically, the Government prioritised administrative reform, implementing measures to simplify procedures, reorganise administrative boundaries and steamline the apparatus to improve governance efficiency and create a more favourable environment for production and business.
At the same time, ministries, sectors, and localities were directed to synchronise price-management measures, ensure supply-and-demand balance, control inflation and sustain economic recovery momentum.
Compared to the previous month, the CPI in September rose by 0.42% bringing the third quarter average to 3.27% higher than a year ago.
Two groups posted price declines in Q3 2025. Transport fell 1.42%, lowering the overall CPI by 0.14 percentage points, mainly due to a 6.62% drop in fuel prices following global trends. Post and telecommunications decreased 0.53%, shaving 0.02 percentage points off CPI as older mobile-phone models became cheaper.
Conversely, several groups contributed to CPI growth in the third quarter of 2025. Food and catering services rose 2.52%; housing, electricity, water, fuel, and construction materials jumped 6.98%; and education increased 3.13% due to higher tuition fees at some private schools for the 2025–2026 academic year.
The largerst increase occurred in healthcare and medical services, which surged 12.69%. Other groups recorded moderate rises — culture, entertainment, and tourism (up 1.78%) and miscellaneous goods and services (up 2.93%) — driven mainly by higher jewellery prices linked to domestic gold rates and rising personal-goods costs.
In October, the CPI for food and catering services is expected to rise because of recent storms, with sharp price increases in food, electricity, healthcare and education costs — components excluded from the core inflation basket.
Core inflation in September rose 0.2% month-on-month and 3.18% year-on-year. For the first nine months of 2025, it averaged 3.19%, slightly below the overall CPI rise of 3.27%. The difference was mainly due to increases in food, electricity, healthcare, and education costs — components excluded from the core inflation basket.
