INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION CONTINUES RECOVERY BUT DIFFICULTIES REMAIN

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in May continued to recover, but enterprises are still facing difficulties due to the impact of increasing input production costs, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Đỗ Thị Ngọc, head of GSO's Statistics Department, said national industrial production changed more positively with an IIP growth of 2.2 per cent in May over the previous month and 0.1 per cent over the same period last year.

However, due to the challenging situation of the world economy in the first months of 2023, the decrease in export orders affected domestic industrial production. Việt Nam's IIP in the first five months decreased by 2 per cent over the same period last year.

Of these, the water supply, waste-water treatment and management activities recorded the highest IIP increase of 6.4 per cent in the first five months. The electricity generation and distribution sector followed with 0.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, the mining industry and the processing and manufacturing sectors saw a decline of 3.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent in IIP, respectively.

In terms of localities, the GSO said in the first five months, 49 localities gained growth in this index compared to the same period of last year, while IIP decreased in the remaining 14 localities.

Of which, Gia Lai recorded the highest increase in IIP at 21.7 per cent. Tuyên Quang followed with the IIP growth at 18.6 per cent. Other localities achieving high growth rates included Bắc Giang (15.9 per cent), Phú Thọ (15.3 per cent), Hải Phòng (13.4 per cent), Nam Định (13.3 per cent), Kiên Giang (13.1 per cent), Phú Yên (12.3 per cent), and Hậu Giang (8.3 per cent).

The GSO also reported that several essential industrial products showed an increase in IIP during the first five months of 2023, including sugar (31.1 per cent), gasoline (13.5 per cent), garments made from man-made fibres (10.6 per cent), NPK fertiliser (9.2 per cent), and televisions (7 per cent).

Meanwhile, some other products saw a reduction in IIP growth in the same period, such as automobiles (24 per cent), bar and angle steel (20.1 per cent), mobile phones (16.4 per cent), textiles from natural fibres and phone components (10.1 per cent each), and casual wear (9.8 per cent).

The office also pointed out that the businesses continued to face difficulties in the context of the global economic downturn affecting the domestic economy.

In the first five months, Việt Nam had 88,000 enterprises withdrawing from the market, up 22.6 per cent over the same period last year. The average registered capital of a newly established enterprise also decreased by 24.1 per cent.

Source: VNS