Industrial production expands 10.9 percent in seven months

Illustrative Image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam saw strong growth in its industrial production index (IIP) in the first seven months of 2018 thanks to the expansion of many major economic sectors, especially processing and manufacturing, which recorded the highest expansion in the recent seven years. According to the General Statistics Office, the IIP in July grew 14.3 percent over the same period last year, pushing total growth in the first seven months to 10.9 percent, higher than 7.1 percent in the same time last year. Particularly, the processing and manufacturing industry maintained high growth at 13.1 percent, contributing 9.9 percentage points to total expansion. It was followed by power manufacturing and production which increased 10.7 percent. Some sectors in the secondary industry (dominated by the manufacturing of finished products) also saw high growth, such as refined oil production (up 64.1 percent), mineral mining support services (up 25.2 percent) and electronics, computers and optical products (up 16.4 percent). Many primary products rose substantially against the same period last year, including crude steel (up 41.1 percent), passenger cars (32.9 percent), liquefied petroleum gas (up 32.7 percent), synthetic fibres (up 19.1 percent), refined sugar (up 18.9 percent), seafood feed (up 18.5 percent) and televisions (up 14 percent). However, some products saw declines in production due to lower demand, such as crude oil (down 11.3 percent), mobile phones (down 0.9 percent) and urea fertiliser (down 3.5 percent). All 63 cities and provinces posted higher growth in industrial production against 2017’s corresponding period, of… [Read full story]