Vietnam’s industrial production index enjoyed a year-on-year increase of 3 percent in January.

According to the Ministry and Industry and Trade, the processing and manufacturing sector increased 6.6 percent; the production and distribution of electricity jumped 4.4 percent; and water supply, sewage and waste management soared 9 percent. On the other hand, the mining sector fell 9.6 percent.

In the month, the inventory index of the manufacturing and processing industries was up 9 percent from January last year. There were also large stockpiles of milk products, sugar and cattle-feed.

Data from the ministry also show that Vietnam earned 10.3 billion USD from export activities last month, down 11.5 percent from December and 10.8 percent against the first month of 2013.

However, the prices of some commodities rose remarkably, including rice (3.1 percent), pepper (1.4 percent), tea (9.5 percent), and cassava and cassava products (11.1 percent).

Head of the ministry’s Import-Export Department, Phan Van Chinh, said that the ministry had directed businesses to effectively exploit the domestic market, improve the distribution system of goods, maintain traditional export markets and develop new ones.-VNA