Vietnam industrial production falls for second straight month
02:40, 30 August 2021
Vietnam’s industrial output and retail sales showed continued weakness in August, highlighting the country’s struggle against the latest outbreak of the coronavirus.
Industrial output fell 7.4% year-on-year, the second straight month of contractions following a 0.3% drop in July, according to preliminary data released by Vietnam’s General Statistics Office on Sunday (29 August). Manufacturing output shrank by 9.2% against 0.7% increase in the previous month.
“Industrial production in August was affected when the COVID-19 pandemic continued to develop complicatedly, [with] many localities had to implement social distancing to prevent [the] epidemic,” the statistics office said.
Sharp drop in retail sales
Retail sales showed an even marked fall, with August’s preliminary data showing the fourth straight month of contractions. Retail sales fell 33.7% as compared with 19.8% drop in July and in contrast with this year’s peak of 30.9% rise in April.
Consumer price index rose 2.82% year-on-year in August from 2.64% a month earlier, though core inflation, which strips out volatile items such as food, decelerate to 0.98% year-on-year against 0.99%.
Trade balance was in deficit of USD1.3bn in August, the fifth straight month of deficit and the second biggest since the USD2.1bn deficit in May. Between January and August, trade deficit amounted to USD3.71bn.
Vietnam’s daily COVID infections crossed the 10,000-mark on 19 August and climbed to over 12,000 on 27 August, according to Reuters.