Local enterprises upbeat about business production in H2

Hanoi (VNA) – Most of the local processing and manufacturing enterprises feel more upbeat about their business prospects in the second half of the year, according to a recent survey by the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The GSO’s statistics revealed that 55.4 percent of local enterprises expect a surge in production, 35.3 percent expect things to remain stable and only 9.3 percent anticipate their production to dip in the six-month period ending in December.

Business looks more promising in the third quarter from the previous quarter as evaluated by 47.7 percent of enterprises in the processing and manufacturing sector. About 39.1 percent believe it would be unwavering and 13.2 percent think there would be difficulties.

As much as 48.5 percent of businesses surveyed expect more orders to come in the July-December period, while 42 percent said it would remain stable. Only 9.5 percent were pessimistic about fewer orders for the second half of the year.

About 38.2 percent, 12.1 percent and 49.7 percent of the businesses predicted export orders to increase, dwindle or remain steadfast in the third quarter, respectively.

Regarding employment, the survey indicated that 26.5 percent of firms planned to hire more workers, with 66.5 percent expecting their head-count to remain stable in the period.

According to the GSO, 55.6 percent of correspondents foresaw their inventories of finished products to be stable, 29.7 percent predicted reduction and 14.7 percent projected their goods in stock to grow.

Total revenue from retail and service sales in the first six months of this year was estimated at 1,724 trillion VND (76.2 billion USD), a year-on-year increase of 9.5 percent. Robust growth in revenue was seen in Binh Duong, Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa, Khanh Hoa, Quang Nam, An Giang and Bac Giang provinces and Hai Phong city, the GSO said.-VNA