Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Vietnam’s index of industrial production (IIP) increased 10.5 percent on-year in the first half of 2018, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported.
The metric was higher than the 7 percent growth recorded in the same period last year, the GSO said.
The GSO attributed this year’s IIP growth to breakthroughs in the processing and manufacturing sector, which rose 12.7 percent, contributing 9.7 percentage points to the overall IPP.
According to the GSO’s General Director Nguyen Bich Lam, the processing and manufacturing industry was a bright spot for the economy, driving the overall growth of the industry.
“It is one of the three sectors, together with the agro-forestry-fishery and services, to achieve impressive growth and contribute a substantial 7.08 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first six months of 2018, the highest rate in the first half of the year since 2011,” Lam said.
Some manufacturing sectors in the secondary industry enjoyed significant growth compared to the same period last year and contributed to the general growth of the whole industry sectors including, metal production (20 percent), coal and refined petroleum products (20.3 percent), electronics, computer and optical products (17.5 percent), medicine, pharmaceutical chemicals and pharmaceutical material production (16.2 percent).
Among the key industrial products that posted high IIP increases in the six months were raw steel and iron (43.7 percent), fabric (22.1 percent), sugar (19 percent), liquefied petroleum gas (18.5 percent), feed for seafood (17.8 percent) and television (17 percent).
However, some other sectors saw lower growth, especially wood processing and products made from bamboo (2.6 percent).
Some sectors recorded industrial production declines. The stone-sand-gravel mining industry went down by 0.7 percent; repair-maintenance and installation of machinery and equipment dropped by 2.7 percent and crude oil and natural gas exploitation fell by 5.7 percent.
Among the significantly reduced products, crude oil was down 10.9 percent.
Running in parallel with the increase in industrial production in the first half of the year, the consumer index of the manufacturing and processing industry also posted an increase of 11.9 percent over the same period last year. In addition, the inventory index fell to its lowest level in the last four years at 63.4 percent, compared to 75.4 percent; 70 percent and 71.1 percent in the first halves of 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Lam also warned that the statistics showed a downward trend in industrial production when the IIP increased by 12.9 percent in the first quarter of 2018 and 8.4 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period of 2017. Likewise, the processing and manufacturing sector, which accounts for over 80 percent of the whole industry, increased 15.7 percent in Q1 and 10.1 percent in Q2.
In the second half of the year, the IIP would see a downward trend as the mining and petroleum industry would be down due to unfavorable weather conditions. Besides, the processing and manufacturing sector would slow because Samsung Electronics Vietnam and Formosa Steel Corporation, which accounted for up to 40 percent of the industry, had reduced production due to lower consumption, Lam added.-VNS/VNA
VNA
