HANOI: Vietnam’s monthly inflation rate dwindled to zero this month, according to official figures, a dramatic turnaround for the communist country which once battled hyperinflation.

Year-on-year, consumer price inflation was zero in September, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday, the lowest reading in almost a decade. Month-on-month, consumer prices decreased 0.21 per cent in September, it added, part of a broader deflationary trend affecting the region.

For decades, Vietnam has suffered from runaway inflation — with triple digit increases in the 1980s and rates as high as 28.3 per cent as recently as August 2008.