A packaging factory in Kim Dong district, Hung Yen province (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in the first four months of 2020 grew by about 1.8 percent year on year, the slowest pace in many years, due to COVID-19, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The processing-manufacturing sector rose 3 percent; electricity production and distribution 2.9 percent; and water supply, waste and wastewater management and treatment 3.6 percent. Meanwhile, the mining industry contracted 6.8 percent.
The GSO said the complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world have led to a shortage of input materials, which has subsequently hit industrial production.
Motorized vehicle production was down 14.2 percent; beverage production 13.9 percent; and crude oil and natural gas extraction 10.8 percent.
Other key products that followed the downward trend are beer (24.1 percent), automobiles (23.8 percent), sugarcane (23.5 percent), motorcycles (16.6 percent), crude oil (12 percent), and liquefied petroleum gas (11.8 percent).
However, some industries still recorded fair growth such as medicine, pharmaceutical chemical product, and herbal material manufacturing (25.9 percent), coke and refined petroleum product production (16.9 percent), and metal ore mining (16.5 percent).
In April alone, the IIP dropped by 13.3 percent month on month and 10.5 percent year on year.
The GSO said the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts have forced a large number of businesses to lay off employees, adding that the number of employees at industrial firms on April 1 declined 1.1 percent month on month and 1.6 percent year on year./.
VNA
