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Consumers buy goods in a supermarket. |
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s report on industrial production and commercial activities in the eight months of 2023 released yesterday evening, the export of the domestic economic sector was up 8.7 percent which was higher than the FDI sector with an increase of 7.3 percent and the country’s general export with a surge of 7.7 percent. Overall for 8 months, the domestic economic sector's exports only decreased by 2.5 percent compared to the 9.3 percent decrease of the FDI sector (including crude oil).
Also in the press release, the Ministry announced that the PMI index of Vietnam's manufacturing industry has increased for the first time in the last 6 months again above the 50-point threshold in August 2023 while it was 48.7 points in July. This shows that business conditions in the manufacturing industry have improved and businesses' output, the number of new orders, export activities and purchasing activities increased again.
However, difficulties from the global economic slowdown from the first months of the year have affected domestic industrial production, so overall for 8 months, Vietnam's industrial production index still decreased by 0.4 percent compared to the same period last year while it increased by 9.2 percent in the same period last year.
On the one hand, this shows the efforts of domestic enterprises compared to the FDI sector, but on the other hand, it also shows the difficulties of businesses in general, including FDI enterprises which are considered to be sectors having more stable market and supply chain, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has said.
For the domestic market, responsible agencies ensured the smooth flow of goods in August and commodity prices did not have unusual fluctuations compared to the previous month. The number of people who plan to buy tourism products in August decreased compared to the previous month because children must come back to their schools after summer vacation whereas demand for apparel, appliances, learning equipment and items kept surging as students were going to start the new school year.
Prices of fresh food products are stable although consumer demand increases at the end of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. In particular, the price of live pigs continues to tend to decrease due to abundant supply. African swine fever has reappeared in some localities, so farmers tend to sell out due to the epidemic whereas, at the same time, demand decreases because many people have eaten vegetarian dishes in the seventh lunar month.
Additionally, prices of commodities such as gasoline, LPG, domestic white sugar wholesale prices, and domestic rice prices increased quite sharply meanwhile prices of construction steel and mixed feed for pigs tended to decrease.
