On June 8, during the question and answer session with Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai, delegate Trieu Thi Huyen (Yen Bai delegation) raised the issue that the Government has issued a Decree on increasing the basic salary from July 1, 2023. Accordingly, the prices of some essential services such as electricity, healthcare, education, and insurance in the coming time can be considered to increase according to the market price roadmap. The delegate asked the Deputy Prime Minister to provide comprehensive solutions on price management to ensure inflation control and avoid the psychological effect of increasing salaries and prices?

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai: Price management is an art, it must be extremely flexible.

Responding to this issue, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai emphasized that price management is an art, and must be extremely flexible in the conditions of operating according to a market economy but under State management. According to Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai, management must pay attention to people's lives, especially those in remote areas.

"Price management solutions must be flexible, based on market signals, and must grasp the market to have a management scenario. For example, with gasoline, prices increased in the first 10 months of the year but decreased in mid-September," Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai cited and said that it is necessary to grasp the market, have solutions and scenarios for management. The goal is to achieve as assigned by the National Assembly, such as 4% CPI in 2022, and about 4.5% in 2023.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai, to maintain prices, we must meet the supply-demand relationship. The Government is very concerned about this, especially with essential goods such as food, foodstuffs and essential goods for the people. In implementing the provisions of the law on prices, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai emphasized that goods whose prices are not set by the State must be posted, declared and regularly inspected.

In particular, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai said that it is necessary to fully disseminate information so that people understand the Government's price management work, avoiding uncontrolled inflation and price increases. During the time of increasing the basic salary, prices must be controlled so that by the end of 2023, the consumer price index (CPI) does not exceed 4.5%.

Also related to salary increase, previously in the report on the socio-economic situation, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that in the coming time, a salary reform roadmap will be implemented; a plan will be developed to adjust the regional minimum wage appropriately.

NGUYEN THAO