Vietnam's inflation rate for 2012 could end up at above 6 percent, compared with the current state projection of 7-8 percent, a state-run newspaper quoted a government official on Tuesday as saying.

The comment by Do Thuc, head of the General Statistics Office, came two days after his department reported that the consumer price index for June rose 6.9 percent from a year earlier, the lowest rate since December 2009.

Prices in June dropped 0.26 percent from May, the first monthly fall since March 2009, according to government data.

Inflation in Vietnam, the highest in Asia last year, peaked at 23 percent in August, and the rate for all of 2011 was 18.58 percent.

On Tuesday, the official Tien Phong newspaper quoted Thuc as saying the falling inflation rate was "the result of the whole process of implementing tight monetary policy."

After June's first monthly fall in prices in a long time, Vietnam should not quickly boost money supply to avoid the high inflation seen in 2009-2010, Thuc told the newspaper.

"If there's no tight control, the CPI in the fourth quarter could rise," he was quoted as saying. "My assessment on the annual CPI is at a rate of above 6 percent."

Thuc was not immediately available for comment.

The central bank has cut key policy rates on June 11, the fourth time it has eased policy this year to help spur flagging economic growth.

Vietnam aims to keep annual inflation this year at 7-8 percent and strive for an economic growth of around 6 percent, the government said in late May.

The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have both forecast Vietnam's inflation to ease to 9.5 percent this year.

Source Reuters