Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Vietnam’s industrial production index (IIP) inJanuary expanded 7.9 percent year-on-year, much lower than the growth rate of22.1 percent the same time last year, according to the General StatisticsOffice (GSO).
Despite its growth over last January’s level,the index fell 3.2 percent from December 2018.
The processing and manufacturing sector,responsible for a large part of domestic industrial production, reported IIPgrowth of 10.1 percent while the IIP growth of electricity production anddistribution and the water supply and waste-sewage treatment sectors reached8.8 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the mining sector’s IIP continued its downtrend, decreasing by 6.7percent year on year. Some major industrial products achieved very highproduction growth in January such as gasoline (95.2 percent), raw iron andsteel (68.6 percent), beer (47.1 percent).
However, some others had only slight growth or even declines in IIPyear-on-year, such as fabrics made from natural fibers (up 1.1 percent), rolledsteel (up 0.7 percent), NPK fertiliser (down 1 percent), phone parts (down 2.3percent), sugar (down 4.6 percent), natural gas (down 5.3 percent), mobilephones (down 5.4 percent), liquefied petroleum gas (down 6.2 percent) and crudeoil (down 17.1 percent).
The GSO said Hai Phong’s IIP growth led the country with an increase of 23.6percent, followed by the provinces of Vinh Phuc with 18.2 percent and Hai Duongwith 11.9 percent.
Hanoi and HCM City had IIP surges of 6.2 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively.
However, Bac Ninh and Ba Ria-Vung Tau saw respective IIP reductions of 1.8 percentand 5.3 percent.-VNS/VNA