Ho Chi Minh City’s economy saw positive growth signals this month while continuing to maintain its stable socio-economic development.

The remark was made at a February 28 meeting to review the city’s socio-economic performance this month and discuss the implementation of its key duties in March.

In the last two months, the city’s retail sales and service revenue aggregated over 103 trillion VND ( 4.9 billion USD ), up 11.8 percent from the same period last year. Of which, 43.43 trillion VND (2.04 billion USD) was raked in during February, a year-on-year increase of 3.8 percent, delegates noted at the event.

In February, HCM City, the country’s economic hub, welcomed 396,000 international tourists, up 10 percent from the same period last year, bringing the level of foreign tourists travelling to the locality in the last two months to 778,000, a year-on-year surge of 11 percent.

Exports brought the city an estimated 1.8 billion USD this month, a year-on-year hike of 14.7 percent. Agricultural production grew by 6.3 percent from the same period last year.

This month, the city granted business licences to more than 2,700 enterprises with registered capital totalling over 14.36 trillion VND, and generated jobs for 25,000 labourers.

To reach next month’s goals, the municipal People’s Committee requested its departments and local authorities to focus on curbing inflation, stabilising the macroeconomic situation and ensuring social welfare.

Efforts will be exerted to stabilise local consumer demand and prices and create favourable conditions for local businesses to enlarge their production and market share.-VNA