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Impacts of Price Hikes
on the Life and Livelihoods
of the Urban Poor
Migrants doing informal jobs accept harsh working conditions in jobs such as motorcycle taxi/cyclo driver,
waste collector, assistant construction worker and street vendor in order to earn extra income to send home
to support their families and pay for their children’s education. The main risk faced by this group is income
instability. As prices increase they can lose clients. For example, since the hike in petrol prices at the end of
July 2008, the number of motorcycle taxi passengers has fallen. Similarly street vendors are worse off as
they have to buy and sell goods at higher prices. An exception is those who sell essential daily items and
cheap breakfast snacks. They manage to keep the same number of clients as “people still have to buy these
essential things no matter how much the prices go up”.
“I am a xe om [motorbike taxi] driver. So I move around. I either eat at home or outside
depending on where I am. As petrol becomes more expensive everything else is affected.
Before Tet, I paid only 8,000 VND for a meal. After Tet it was 10,000 VND. Since yesterday
when the price of petrol went up again the same meal (actually a smaller portion now) cost
12,000 VND”.
(Discussion with xe om drivers group in ward 17, Go Vap district, HCMC, July 2008)
“Before I would buy as much as 35 kg of fruits to sell in the street. Now I only dare buy 12
kg only as the sales are very slow. Everything is so expensive now so people care more about
essential things such as rice and vegetables. Less essential things like fruits are often cut. We
can sell more on the 1st and 15th days of each lunar month, on weekends or national
holidays. On a regular day, we cannot sell much, sometimes only 10-20, 000 VND worth of
fruits, which is not enough to cover our expenses”.
(Discussion with street vendors group in Niem Nghia ward, Le Chan, Hai Phong, June/2008)
Mrs. N. T. L., 43, of Vnh Phúc province, is renting lodging in Unit 4, ward 6, Go Vap district
and selling children’s toys in the street. Her husband is also with her. He is a street massage
worker. They left their two children (a girl in grade 7 and a boy in grade 9) with their parents.
Each month they send home 1 million VND. However since the beginning of this year they
have been trying to send 1.5 million VND as “everything back home has become more
expensive now”.
Life is more difficult this year as prices have increased while sales have stayed the same. They
have to limit their total daily expenditure to 30,000 VND (compared to 20,000 VND in 2007).
The price of food increased the most rapidly. They now only buy the cheapest rice possible
and never eat out. Their lodging rent has increased from 500,000 in 2005 when they first
arrived to 650,000 VND (a small 4mx4m room they share with a brother). Normally Mrs. L.
can make 40,000 VND a day from selling toys. This year toys are more expensive and she
cannot sell as much. For example, a plastic ball cost 6,000 VND in 2007 and she was able to
sell it at 9,000 VND. This year she has to buy it for 7,000 VND and sell at only 9,500 VND.
Mrs. L. and her husband moved to the city in 1999. When asked why she had travelled so
far from home she replied: “We can make more money here. If we went to Hanoi which is
very close to home we would have had to go back every month. Then we would not have
been able to save any money. As we are here, each year we only go back at Tet holiday.”
Also, in Hanoi, the ban on street vendors is more strictly enforced. One year she went back
to the north for Tet and tried to sell toys in Hanoi. However she could not do much as she
was “scared away”. “Over here, it is a suburban area so it’s easier to move around. District
1 also has banned street vendors. However, It is still ok in Go Vap district. Maybe in a few
years I will have to find a new job, such as collecting waste or selling sticky rice cakes.”
Mrs. L. and her husband have some land to lease in their home village. They also built a four
room house with tiled roof in 2001. Their plan is to "continue to work here. The longer the
better. Only when our parents fall sick will we have to go back to look after them”.
(Interview with Mrs. N.T. L., migrant street vendor in Unit 4, ward 6, Go Vap district, July 2008)
Their food patterns have also changed. They eat cheaper items and less meat. However the situation is still
very difficult to manage. Their savings have reduced significantly. Most migrants doing informal jobs have
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