The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growth rate has hit a record low since June with a year-on-year increase of only 6.9 percent in the first 11 months of this year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) has reported.

"In the first six months, the figure was 9.7 percent and 8.8 percent in seven months, 7.3 percent in eight months, 7.8 percent in nine months and 7 percent in 10 months," the GSO said.

The office's experts said that the down-turn in the IIP reflected financial difficulties experienced by industrial companies, including high interest and foreign exchange rates.

Meanwhile, they added, the financial challenges also had a strong impact on their distribution and that was why many of them had to cut down their production.

Although the IIP continued to drop, the value of manufacturing and processing industries, which account for nearly 70 percent of the industrial sector, still reached a high growth rate of 9.8 percent.

Other industries reaching high growth rates during the same period included the sugar sector with 982,000 tonnes, up by 42.4 percent against the same time last year; and the garment industry with 1.6 billion units, up by 15.1 percent.

The auto and motorbike industry gained a growth rate of 19.9 percent, manufacturing 3.8 million units.

During the 11 months, power production and distribution rose 9.7 percent, reaching 92 billion kWh.

As of the beginning of November, the stockpile index saw a month-on-month increased of 0.4 percent. Some industries have amassed huge stockpiles, including the furniture industry and paper producers./.