Total turnover for goods and services in the first nine months of the year surged by 18.6 percent year-on-year to 845.4 trillion VND (47.2 billion USD) thanks to a series of Government stimulus measures and promotional programmes, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The GSO said that business turnover reached 662.5 trillion VND (37 billion USD), up 19 percent over the same period last year.

Hotel and restaurant revenues reached nearly 96 trillion VND (5.4 billion USD), a surge of 16.3 percent year-on-year.

The service sector, meanwhile, contributed 9.3 percent or 78.8 trillion VND (4.4 billion USD) to the country’s total retail turnover, a year-on-year rise of 19.1 percent.
Sales of goods and services in the country’s two largest cities – Hanoi and HCM City – in the first nine months reached 303.2 trillion VND (16.9 billion USD), accounting for 35.9 percent of the figure nationwide and representing a rise of 18.5 percent against the same period last year.

For the past few months, businesses have implemented a series of measures to boost domestic sales.
For example, fresh and frozen meat processor Vissan last month cut prices and increased its range of products, which helped it sell more than 1,000 tonnes of goods – a 27.9 percent increase over the same period last year.
Deputy general director of Sai Gon Coop Nguyen Thanh Nhan said that the implementation of promotion programmes last month helped turnover at his supermarket chain surge 40 percent year-on-year.

The deputy director of the Domestic Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vu Van Quyen, said that besides promotion campaigns, Government stimulus policies included scrapping or reducing personal income tax and value added tax, which he said had had positive impact on retail sales./.