Against the backdrop of industrial production value and exports plunging sharply in the last eight months, Vietnam’s retail sector saw products flying off the shelves, attaining a growth rate of 18.4 percent.

According to the latest report from the General Statistics Office, the country’s revenue from the retail and services sector totalled 743 trillion VND in the reviewed period.

Economic experts explain that the growth of the retail sector was largely fuelled by the Government’s stimulus packages, which have been wisely utilised by enterprises to increase the competiveness of the goods and services they offer.

Apart from launching promotional campaigns to get a bigger slice of the retail pie, many big supermarkets have recently slashed prices to equal or even lower than those of goods found in open-air markets to draw more consumers.

Take, for example, the Saigon Coop in Ho Chi Minh City: it cut prices on up to 300,000 categories of goods, ranging from textiles and garments, to housewares, electronics and cosmetics during the “Vietnam’s pride” programme it launched late August.

Earlier, the Big C system reduced prices on 1,400 categories of essential commodities, mainly dried food and cosmetic products, by 1-10 percent and on 600 items of fresh food and meat by 25-35 percent.

The Maximark also offered reductions from 5-30 percent on prices of around 300 goods items, mainly dairy products, beverages and cooking oil.

Despite its comparatively small-scale, Vietnam’s retail market has kept growing stably and achieved a high growth rate, as evidenced in the past eight months. It is highly rated by foreign investors as harbouring a huge untapped potential.

Late June, the Grant Thornton Vietnam company made public a study revealing that up to 70 percent of 169 local and foreign investors surveyed said they consider the retail sector as the most attractive one for investment in Vietnam in 2009.

Also, in its report on Vietnam ’s economy this year, the Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) commented that in the context of continuously declining exports, the retail sector will be a lever to ratchet up Vietnam ’s economic growth in the coming quarters and will likely post the highest growth rate in Vietnam .

According to the Vietnam Retailers’ Association, total retail revenue rose 25 percent a year on average during the 2006-08 period against 11 percent recorded in the previous periods.

The association also forecasts that retail and service turnover will increase over 20 percent a year in the coming time./.