Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - The purchasing power in the total national retail value of goods and services until April 2016 reached nearly 1.14 trillion VND, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported.
This is equivalent to 51.7 billion USD, and a year-on-year increase of 8.8 percent.
The increase is estimated at 7.5 percent if the price factor is excluded, lower than the growth of the first four months of last year at 8.3 percent, and the lowest growth since the beginning of this year.
In particular, the growth of January is 11 percent, of the first two months is 8.3 percent, and of the first three months is 7.9 percent.
GSO expert Vu Manh Ha attributed the decrease in purchasing power of the first four months of this year to the significant growth of the consumer price index (CPI) of the first four months compared to the same period last year.
However, total sales have still seen a fairly positive increase.
Of these, the total revenue of retail goods, which account for more than 75 percent of the total revenue, hit 39.5 billion USD, up nine percent.
Of these, food and foodstuff retail increased 13 percent, garment retail increased 10.6 percent, transportation services 10 percent, home appliances 9.2 percent and retail of culture and education products increased 1.3 percent.
The total revenue of accommodation and restaurant service sales, which accounts for 11.2 percent of the total revenue, increasing eight percent in the first four months.
Localities which have a high growth in the sector’s revenue include Thanh Hoa (15 percent), Ninh Binh (9 percent), Hanoi (nearly 9 percent) and HCM City (nearly 8 percent).
The total revenue of tourism and travel sector, which accounts for only 0.8 percent, also reached a growth of 8 percent in the first four months.
Of these, tourism of Lam Dong Province has the highest increase in revenue of 16.5 percent, followed by Can Tho Province (12 percent), Hanoi (8.1 percent) and HCM City (6.5 percent).-VNA
