Industrial production picks up 7.5 pct in first five months
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in the first five months of 2016 picked up 7.5% from the same period last year, with May’s figure increasing 7.8% year-on-year.
According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO), metal production led all sectors with growth of 18.9%, followed by computers, electronic and optical products (17.5%), furniture (17%) and textiles (16.3%).
Several products saw higher growth than the same period last year, including televisions (42%), automobiles (28.6%), and cattle feed (17.5%) while others edged down, for example, motorbikes (2.3%), footwear (2.9%), sugar (3.4%) and crude oil (4.5%).
Thai Nguyen province registered the largest IIP expansion of 39.9%. Quang Nam province came second with 37.9%, followed by Can Tho city (19.8%), Hai Phong (13.7%) and Bac Ninh (13.5%).
The two major economic hubs – Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City – saw increases of 7.4% and 6.4%, respectively.
As of May 1, the inventory level of manufacturing and processing industry rose by 8.7% year on year, lower than last year’s figure of 11.5%, the GSO said. Sharp rises were witnessed in computers, electronic and optical products (104.9%), vehicles (65.5%), and paper products (36.1%).
The number of workers in industry increased 6.1% year-on-year.
