Ho Chi Minh City has maintained a reasonable socio-economic growth in the first five months of 2013, the HCM City People's Committee Chairman, Le Hoang Quan, has said.

Chairman Quan said at a meeting to review the city's socio-economic growth on May 30 that total retail sales and service revenues of the city rose by 7.7 percent compared with the same period last year.
He also noted that CPI rose by only 0.66 percent compared with December 2012, when it grew by 2.49 percent.

Export during the reviewed period was 10.73 trillion VND (512 million USD), a year-on year increase of 4.3 percent, while industrial production grew by 4.6 percent.

Agriculture, forestry and seafood production increased 6.7 percent. The number of tourist arrivals in the city was 286,200, posting a year-on-year increase of 6 percent.

To promote business, Quan has asked the municipal relevant agencies to take measures to help businesspeople settle bad debts and overcome other difficulties.

In the next seven months of 2013, the city will focus on measures for trade promotion and market expansion.

The city will also continue improving management and accelerating work on major construction projects./.