Industrial production rises slightly

Hanoi (VNA) - The national index of industrial production (IIP) rose by 0.7 percent in January 2017 compared to the same period last year, according to General Statistics Office data.

The lagging growth was partly due to the week-long break during the Tet holiday, but it is still the lowest IIP January rise in the past 4 years, with January 2016 reporting a growth of 5.9 percent.

Regardless, several sectors experienced a hike in production, such as textile’s 16 percent rise, metal moulding’s 14.8 percent growth, and vehicle engines’ 9.9 percent increase.

Several other main industrial productions also achieved fair growth compared to the same period in 2016, such as television sets growing by 35.2 percent, steel by 22.3 percent, cattle feed by 12.9 percent, processed seafood rose by 12.5 percent, crude steel by 7.2 percent, chemical paint by 7.7 percent and cement by 8.8 percent.

Other products had had little to no growth, even experiencing some decreases due to difficult markets and low consumer demand, including leather footwear dropping by 2.8 percent, natural textile up by only 0.9 percent, motorbikes up by 1.6 percent. More drastically, powdered milk dropped by 11.5 percent, refined sugar dropped by 12.3 percent, crude oil decreased by 15 percent and natural gas sagged by 23.5 percent.

Inventory index for January 2017 grew by 8.3 percent, lower than the 9 percent rise in the same period in 2016, which shows consumption is returning to a steadier pace.

By the end of December 2016, IIP for the entire 2016 experienced an 8.5 percent growth, lower than the 11 percent increase for 2015.-VNA