SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION IN JANUARY 2018

1. Production of agriculture, forestry and fishery

a. Agriculture

As of January 15, 2018, the whole country cultivated 1807.1 thousand hectares of winter-spring rice, equaling 99% from the same period last year. Together with the cultivation of winter-spring, as of mid-January, localities over the country cultivated 152.9 thousand hectares of maize, equaling 89.1% of the cultivated area in the similar period last year; 38 thousand hectares of sweet potato, equaling 92.9%; 7.4 thousand hectares of soya, equaling 49.7%; 25.5 thousand of peanut, equaling 108.1%; 346.3 thousand hectares of vegetables, equaling 106.4%.

Estimated in January, the whole country’s flock of buffaloes reduced by 0.1% against the same period last year; flock of oxen grew by 2.5%; flock of poultry increased by 6.8%; flock of pigs went down by 5.4%. As of January 25, 2018, the country no longer had epidemic diseases on cattle and poultry.

+ Agricultural production as of 15 January, 2018

b. Forestry

In January, the concentrated planted forest area of the country was estimated to reach 2845 hectares, up 3.5% compared to the same period last year; the number of separate planted trees gained 715 thousand trees, a decline of 0.4%; wood production gained 620 thousand m3, a rise of 5.6%.

Damaged forest area in January was 27.6 hectares, down 34.7% against the same period lin 2017, of which the burnt forest area was 4.3 hectares, down 80.1%

c. Fishery

Fishing production in January was estimated to reach 525.7 thousand tons, moving up by 4.1% over the same period last year, of which fish gained 391.5 thousand tons, up 4.5%; shrimp reached 47.1 thousand tons, up 6.8%; other aquatic products achieved 87.1 thousand tons, 0.9% rise.

Production of aquaculture in the month was estimated to be 274.3 thousand tons, rising by 4.3% compared to the identical period last year, of which fish reached 208.3 thousand tons, a growth of 4.2%; shrimp gained 34.7 thousand tons, an increase of 8.1%.

Production of fishery caught in January reached an estimate of 251.4 thousand tons, rising by 3.8% against the same period last year, of which fish gained 183.2 thousand tons, increasing by 4.8%; shrimp achieved 12.4 thousand tons, up 3.3%. Only production of sea catching in January was estimated to reach 236 thousand tons, growing by 4%, of which fish gained 172.9 thousand tons, a rise of 5%; shrimp recorded 11.2 thousand tons, increasing by 3.7%.

2. Industry

The index of industrial production (IIP) for the whole industry in January 2018 was estimated to increase highly by 20.9% over the similar period in 2017[1]. In the industrial sector, the manufacturing grew by 23.8%, contributed 17.5 percentage points to the general growth rate; the power generation and distribution climbed by 15.4%, contributed 1 percentage points; the mining and quarrying went up by 10.5%, contributed 2.3 percentage points; the water supply and waste treatment increased by 6.8%, contributed 0.1 percentage points.

The number of employees working in industrial enterprises as of January 01, 2018 rose by 4.2% compared to the same period last year, of which employees in the State enterprise sector decreased by 1.3%; employees in the non-State enterprise sector grew by 2.4%; and employees in the FDI enterpsise sector went up by 5.8%.

+ Industrial Production Index
+ Main industrial products
+ Labor employed index (LEI) for industrial enterprises

3. Business registration situation [2]

In January 2018, the country had 10839 enterprises registered for new establishment with a total registered capital of 98.3 trillion dongs, an increase of 20.6% in the number of enterprise and 8.9% rise in the registered capital compared to the same period in 2017. Average registered capital per newly established enterprise reached 9.1 billion dongs, down 9.7%[3]. If including 218.1 trillion dongs of additionally registered capital of enterprises’s changing to raise the capital, the total of registered capital added to the economy in January was 316.4 trillion dongs. Besides, there were 4587 enterprises returning to operation, down 17.6% over the similar period last year, bringing the total number of newly registered enterprises and re-operated enterprises in January this year to 15.4 thousand enterprises. Total number of registered laborers of newly established enterprises in the month was 85.3 thousand people, equaling 82% of that in the same period in 2017.

The number of temporarily ceased enterprises in the month was 13300 ones, an increase of 0.1% against the identical period last year, including 8622 enterprises registered for time-limited temporary cessation of operation, rising by 26.4% and 4678 enterprises temporarily suspended operation without registering or waiting for dissolution, falling by 27.7%. Of the total number of enterprises registered for time-limited temporary cessation of operation, there were 3857 single member limited liability companies (accounting for 44.7%); 2622 two-member limited liability companies (accounting for 30.4%); 1387 joint-stock companies (representing 16.2%); 754 private businesses (accounting for 8.7%); and 02 partnerships.

The number of enterprises which finished the procedure for dissolution in January 2018 was 1554 ones, a decrease of 1.8% from the previous year, of which there were 1425 enterprises with capital size of less than 10 billion dongs, accounting for 91.7%. By types of enterprise, of the total number of enterprises which finished the procedure for dissolving, terminating operations, there were 718 single member limited liability companies (accounting for 46.2%); 422 two-member limited liability companies (accounting for 27.2%); 218 private businesses (accounting for 14%); and 196 joint-stock companies (representing 12.6%).

+ Number of newly registered enterprises by kinds of activity
+ Number of enterprises re-operated by kinds of activity
+ Number of enterprises temporarily ceased operations by kinds of activity

4. Investment

Total realized investment capital under the State budget in January reached an estimate of 16175 billion dongs, equaling 4.9% of the annual plan and up 13.9% against the same period in 2017, of which the capital under central management obtained 3192 billion dongs, equaling 4.8% of the annual plan and up 9.2% over the identical period last year; the capital under local management achieved 12983 billion dongs, equaling 4.9% of the annual plan and increasing by 15.1% compared to that in the same period in 2017.

From the beginning of the year to January 20, 2018, FDI attracted 166 newly licensed projects with the total registered capital of US$ 442.6 million, a decline of 5.1% in the number of projects and a decrease of 64.4% in the registered capital against the similar period in 2017. Besides, there were 61 times of license-granted projects from previous years registered to adjust investment capital with the additional capital of US$ 456.8 million, up 155% from the same period last year. Thus, the total of newly registered capital and additional capital reached US$ 899.4 million, down 36.8% from 2017’s same period. Realized FDI capital in January 2018 was estimated at US$ 1050 million, increasing by 10.5% compared to that in January 2017.  In the month, there were 415 times of capital contribution and share purchase of foreign investors with a total capital contribution of US$ 356 million, a growth of 54.7% against the same period in 2017, of which 212 times of capital contribution and share purchase increased the charter capital of enterprises with the contributed capital of US$ 199.1 million and 203 times of foreign investors bought back domestic shares without increasing charter capital with the value of US$ 156.9 million.

In January 2018, 24 provinces and centrally-run cities nationwide had newly licensed foreign direct investment projects from 23 countries and territories.

+ Realized investment capital under the State budget
+ Licensed FDI projects from January 01 to January 20, 2018

5. Government revenues and expenditures

Total estimated government revenues in the first 15 days of January 2018 achieved an estimate of 19.9 trillion dongs, equaling 1.5% of the annual estimate, of which domestic revenues reached 13 trillion dongs, equaling 1.2%; collecting from crude oil achieved 1.2 trillion dongs, equaling 3.4%; from export-import balance gained 5.7 trillion dongs, equaling 3.2%. In domestic revenues, revenue from State owned enterprises was 447 billion dongs, equaling 0.3%; revenue from foreign-invested enterprises (excluding crude oil) was 688 billion dongs, equaling 0.3%; 2.5 trillion dongs were collected from non-State industrial, commercial and service taxes, equaling 1.1%; personal income tax revenue was 1.2 trillion dongs, equaling 1.2%; 100 billion dongs were collected from environmental protection tax, equaling 0.2%; land use fees reached 3.3 trillion dongs, equaling 3.8% of the yearly estimate;.

Total government expenditures in the first 15 days of January 2018 was estimated at 38.3 trillion dongs, equaling 2.5% of the yearly estimate, of which expenditure on development investment achieved 2.5 trillion dongs, equaling 0.6%; expenditure on interest payment was 5 trillion dongs, equaling 4.4%; regular expenditures were 30.8 trillion dongs, equaling 3.3%.

6. Trade, prices, transport and tourism

a. Retail sales of consumer goods and services

Total estimated retail sales of consumer goods and services in January 2018 reached 361.1 trillion dongs, up 3% over the previous month and up 9.5% against the same period last year, if excluding the price factor, the growth rate was 8.38%.

By kinds of economic activity, retail sales of goods in January gained an estimate of 272 trillion dongs, up 3.5% over the previous month and a rise of 8.3% from the similar period last year. Estimated sales of accommodation and catering services in January 2018 attained 45.1 trillion dongs, moving up by 0.5% from the previous month and climbing by 14.7% from the same period last year. Sales of travelling in the month achieved an estimate of 3.9 trillion dongs, increasing by 3.9% against the previous month and going up by 39.3% compared to that in the similar period last year. Sales of other services in January achieved an estimate of 40.1 trillion dongs, up 1.8% compared to that in the previous month and up 9.9% against the identical period last year.

+ Total retail sales of consumer goods and services

b. Exports and imports of goods

Export turnovers of goods in January 2018 was estimated to reach US$ 19.0 billion, a decrease of 3.3% month-on-month, of which the domestic economic sector achieved US$ 5.41 billion, moving down by 5.2%; the FDI sector (including crude oil) gained US$ 13.59 billion, falling by 2.6%. About the merchandize export market, China was the biggest export market of Vietnam in January 2018 with the turnover of US$ 4.5 billion, 2.5 times as high as that in  the same period last year[4]; followed by the United States with US$ 3.5 billion, increasing by 17%; EU with US$ 3 billion, an increase of 6.6%; ASEAN with US$ 1.7 billion, moving up by 15.7%; Japan with US$ 1.5 billion, up 18.6%; South Korea with US$ 1.3 billion, a growth of 28%.

Import turnovers in January 2018 reached an estimate of US$ 19.3 billion, down 3% from the previous month, of which the domestic economic sector gained US$ 7.8 billion, down 4.7%; the FDI sector achieved US$ 11.5 billion, down 1.7%. Compared to the similar period last year, import turnovers of goods in January 2018 were estimated to increase sharply by 47.4%, of which the domestic economic sector grew by 43.2%; the FDI sector rose by 50.4%. About the merchandize import market in the month, China was the biggest import market of Vietnam with estimated turnover of US$ 5.7 billion, up 45.6% against the corresponding period in 2017; followed by South Korea with US$ 4.2 billion, an increase of 54.2%; ASEAN with US$ 2.6 billion, a rise of 46.3%; Japan with US$ 1.7 billion, 93.1% increase; EU with US$ 1.1 billion, up 34.1%; the United States with US$ 780 million, up 15.4%.

In 2017, Vietnam had trade surplus of US$ 2.9 billion, equivalent to 1.4% of the export turnover. In January 2018, estimated trade deficit was US$ 300 million, of which the domestic economic sector had trade deficit of US$ 2.4 billion; the FDI sector (including crude oil) had trade suplus of US$ 2.1 billion.

+ Exports
+ Imports

c. Consumer price indexes (CPI), gold and US dollar price indexes

CPI in January 2018 grew by 0.51% month-on-month and by 2.65% from the same period last year.

Gold price index in January 2018 increased by 1.69% over the previous month and by 6.70% over the same period in 2017. The US dollar price index in January 2018 decreased by 0.04% over the previous month and by 0.02% compared to that in the same period in 2017.

Core inflation in January 2018 grew by 0.18% compared to the previous month and by 1.18% over the same period last year.

+ Consumer price indexes, gold, US dollar price indexes and core inflation in January, 2018

d. Carriage of passengers and cargos

Passenger carriage in January 2018 reached an estimate of 369.3 million passengers, rising by 9.4% over the corresponding period in 2017 and 16.1 billion passengers-kilometers, by 9.2%. Passengers carried by road achieved 348.6 million passengers, a rise of 9.7% over the same period last year and 11.3 billion passengers-kilometers, a rise of 10.1%; by inland waterway: 15.6 million passengers, up 5.2% and 293.7 million passengers-kilometers, up 5.9%; by seaway: 599.9 thousand passengers, 7.9% increase and 35.3 million passengers-kilometers, 8.1% growth. Passenger carriage by airway reached a good level with 3.9 million passengers, an increase of 11.2% and 4.2 billion passengers-kilometers, an increase of 12.8% because domestic airlines added more flights. Passenger carriage by railway reached 0.6 million passengers, a drop of 33.3% and 0.2 billion passengers-kilometers, a decline of 45.7% from the same period in 2017.

Cargo carriage in January was estimated to gain 130.6 million tons, up 8.4% from the same period last year and 24.4 billion tons-kilometers, up 6.1%. Of which the domestic transport reached 127.9 million tons, increasing by 8.6% and 13.2 billion tons-kilometers, by 10.8%; overseas transport reached 2.8 million tons, moving up by 0.7% and 11.2 billion tons-kilometers, by 1.1%. By types of transport, cargo transport by road obtained 100.9 million tons, up 8.9% and 6.7 billion tons-kilometers, up 9.2% from the same period last year; by inland waterway: 22.9 million tons, up 7.1% and 4.9 billion tons-kilometers, up 6.9%; by seaway: 6.3 million tons, up 3.7% and 12.3 billion tons-kilometers, up 3.3%; by railway: 0.5 million tons, a growth of 23.5% and 0.4 billion tons-kilometers, up 57.4%; by airway: 30.2 thousand tons, up 5.6% and 79.4 million tons-kilometers, up 3.8%.

+ Carriage of passengers

e. International visitors to Vietnam

In January 2018, international visitors to Vietnam was estimated to reach 1430.2 thousand arrivals, up 42% from the same period last year, of which visitors coming by airway increased by 37.8% (increased 315.7 thousand arrivals); by road: a rise of 58.9% (a rise of 90.6 thousand arrivals); by seaway: a growth of 89.5% ( a growth of 16.4 thousand arrivals). Compared to the previous month, international visitors to Vietnam grew by 12.1%.

In January, visitors to Vietnam from Asia achieved an estimate of 1046.7 thousand arrivals, increasing by 53.9% against the similar period last year. Visitors from Europe were estimated to reach 225.5 thousand arrivals, going up by 22.8% from the identical period last year. Visitors from America obtained 97.7 thousand arrivals, moving up by 7.7% over the same period last year. Visitors from Africa achieved 5 thousand arrivals, a rise of 25.8% against the similar period in 2017.

+ International visitors to Vietnam

7. Social issues

a. Farmers’ food shortage

In January (as of January 18, 2018), the country had 5.7 thousand households suffering from food shortage, corresponding to 19.7 thousand persons suffering from food shortage. According to the preliminary report, to overcome this problem, all administrative levels, sectors and localities supported difficult households with about 135 thousand tons of rice.

b. Epidemic diseases and food poisoning

In January 2018, the whole country had 2.9 thousand cases of hemorrhagic fever, down 20.6% against the same period last year; nearly 1.1 thousand cases of hand, foot, mouth disease, down 35.2%; 14 cases of virus encephalitis; 3 cases of typhoid; 2 cases of meningococcal disease; 1 cases of Zika virus infection and 145 persons with food poisoning.

Total number of alive HIV-infected persons over the country as of January 17, 2018 was 209.2 thousand persons and 90.3 thousand cases turned to AIDS. The number of persons died of HIV/AIDS nationwide as of above time-point was 95.4 thousand persons.

c. Traffic accidents

From December 16, 2017 to January 15, 2018, 1762 traffic accidents occurred nationwide, including 890 traffic accidents of less serious or more and 872 traffic crashes, making 780 persons died, 426 ones injured and 922 ones slightly injured. Compared with the same period last year, the number of traffic accidents increased by 3.5% (the number of traffic accidents from less serious and over went up by 4.5%, the number of traffic crashes grew by 2.6%); Number of dead moved up by 4.8%; the number of injured people climbed by 161.3% and the number of minor injuries reduced by 9.2%. On an average, each day in January, the whole country had 57 traffic accidents, including 29 traffic accidents of less serious or more and 28 traffic crashes, making 25 persons died, 14 ones injured and 30 ones slightly injured.

d. Damages caused by natural disaster, environment protection, fire and explosion prevention

Natural disasters occurred in the month were mainly very and damaging cold weather, rain and landslide in some localities making 3500 hectares of rice and vegetables flooded, damaged, hundreds of cattle died. Total value of damage was over 14.7 billion dongs.

In January 2018, 865 cases of violating regulations of environment protection were found over the country, of which 780 cases were treated with total fine of 15.3 billion dongs. In the month, the whole country had 399 cases of fire and explosion, killing 13 persons and injuring 32 others, the value of damage was estimated 177.5 billion dongs.

GENERAL STATISTICS OFFICE

[1] From January 2018, IIP is calculated and announced based on the base year 2015.

[2] Source: National Business Registration System, Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).

[3] In January 2017, there were 8990 enterprises registered for new establishment with registered capital of 90.3 trillion dongs, average registered capital per enterprise gained 10 billion dongs.

[4] Some items exported to the Chinese market in January 2018 had the high growth rate over the same period last year including: phone of all kinds and their parts reached US$ 1.4 billion, 32 times as high as those in the same period last year; computers and their parts gained US$ 650 million, an increase of 69%; vegetables and fruits achieved US$ 240 million, a rise of 37%.