Industrial production in the first two months of this year gained a year-on-year increase of 13.6 percent to reach 114.54 trillion VND (6.1 billion USD), according to the General Statistic Office (GSO).

The growth in industrial production was evidence of a sound recovery in the industrial sector after the global economic crisis in 2009, said GSO industrial experts.

In the first two months of this year, the foreign-invested sector reported a rise of 15.4 percent to 47.76 trillion VND (2.6 billion USD) in industrial production value, followed by the private economic sector, which increased by 15.1 percent to 41.72 trillion VND and the State owned economic sector, which rose by 8.1 percent to 25.22 trillion VND.

Production and distribution of electricity rose 19 percent to 12.9 billion kWh in the first two months of the year due to increasing demand, the office said.

Production of car tyres rose in value by 86.2 percent, while production of air conditioning units rose 85.7 percent. Glass production rose 74 percent, paper and cardboard output rose 57 percent, cement production rose 36 percent, the number of motorbikes rose 40 per cent, while output of cotton fibre rose 31.8 percent.
Meanwhile, a number of industries saw declines in production value. These included crude oil, down 20 per cent; and coal down 12.3 percent. Sugar, vegetable cooking oil and fertiliser production fell by between 1.2 percent and 4.5 percent.

However, experts said current growth levels were unsustainable due to the stockpiling of goods, the increasing cost of raw materials and the weakness of the Vietnamese dong./.