Total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue in February rose 8.5% year on year. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The total retail sales of goods andconsumer service revenue in February increased by 8.5% over the same period lastyear to 509.7 trillion VND (20.63 billion USD), according to the GeneralStatistics Office (GSO).
The figure contributed to a year-on-year rise of 8.1% in totalretail sales of goods and revenue from consumer services in the first twomonths of this year to 1.03 quadrillion VND.
Of the total, retail sales of goods were estimated at 798.3trillion VND, accounting for 77.4% of the total and up 6.8% over the sameperiod last year (up 4.5% if excluding the price factor).
Of which, retail revenue of food and foodstuffs rose by 10.8%, while thatof household appliances and tools was up 18.1%, garment 9.8%, vehicles(except cars) 1.8%, and cultural and educational products 16.5%.
Particularly, revenue from accommodation and cateringservices rose by 14%, while that from travel services surged by 35.8%.
Thanks to the favourable visa policies,tourism stimulus programmes as well as the efforts of the Government andpeople, the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam in February reached more than1.5 million, up 1.3% over the previous month and 64.1% over the same periodlast year. The number for the first two months of this year hit more than 3 million,an increase of 68.7% over the same period last year.
As a result, revenue from tourism services in the first two months of this yearreached 9 trillion VND.
Meanwhile, revenue from other services was estimated at105.9 trillion VND, accounting for 10.2% of the total and increasing 9.7% overthe same period last year.
Economists held that the shopping season during theLunar New Year (Tet) festival was a leverage for retailers to boost domesticdemand and increase revenue right from the beginning of the year. The businessoutcomes in Tet also showed the consumption trend of the year, helping enterprisesdecide their market development strategies and business plans for the year,they added./.
