Hoang Tho Xuan, head of the Department of Domestic Market Policy under Ministry of Industry and Trade, said though food prices have been driven up by recent floods in the northern and north-central regions, it would not influence the consumer price index this month.

Hanoi and flood-hit localities need at least 20 days to resume their own supply of vegetables, Xuan said. Supplies are now coming in from other areas.

Hanoi’s wholesale markets are getting vegetables from northern provinces like Hung Yen, Nam Dinh and Thai Binh.

Nguyen Van Xuyen, a Hanoi market management official, said with wholesale markets now able to meet the demand, vegetables prices have returned to normal.

Xuan said inflation is expected to rise during Tet, which falls in late January next year, but not by much. He also said economists predicted at a meeting last month that inflation for this whole year would not surpass 24 percent.

Year-on-year inflation fell for a second month in October to 26.7 percent from 27.9 percent in September, according to the Hanoi-based General Statistics Office.