The modest growth of total retail sales of goods and services in May has suggested that Vietnam’s purchasing power has not improved.

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), retail sales in May was estimated to reach 215.5 trillion VND (10.26 million USD), a rise of 0.8 percent over last month.

May’s meager growth of the highest increase of 2013, but it is still only third of the rate recorded in the years before the economy fell into recession.

According to Vu Manh Ha from the GSO, purchasing power was unlikely to improve in the coming months, despite the consumer price index being kept under control at a single digit.

He warned that there was even a high possibility of a decline as there were a large number of enterprises who had temporarily halted their operations.

GSO statistics showed that the number of enterprises stopping production increased by 13 percent over the same period last year.-VNA