The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) recovered slightly in June, inching up 2 percent against the previous month, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported on June 27.

However, the office said, the index's growth in the first half of the year remained low at 4.5 percent compared with the rising rates of 9.7 percent at the same period in 2011 and 8.9 percent during 2010.

It attributed the pessimistic result to the low 4.3 percent surge in the processing and manufacturing industry, which accounts for more than 75 percent of the country's total industrial production value. Industry growth during the same period of the past few years was more than 12.5 percent.

The low index showed that the country's industrial sector still faced production and market difficulties in both domestic and foreign markets, the office's experts said. The consumption of the processing and manufacturing industry, for example, surged only 3.6 percent as of June 1, resulting in an inventory index of up to 26 percent, tripling that of the same period of previous years.

A series of products reported high inventories in the first six months. The mining industry had 9.3 million tonnes of unsold coal, double that of the same period last year. The inventory index of engine vehicles as well as fruit and vegetables also surged more than 110 percent.

Despite difficulties, several industries still experienced surges in production, of which crude oil rose 12.4 percent to more than 8.1 million tonnes, power by 14.8 percent to 55 billion kWh, washing machines by 32.6 per cent to 427,000 units and footwear by 21.6 percent to 29 million pairs.

To boost industrial production, the GSO experts urged the Government to take action in helping industrial producers up consumption and access low interest rate credit.-VNA