The General Statistics Office on June 29 announced at a press conference that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate in the first six months of the year rose by 4.32 percent compared to the same period last year.
Vietnam saw a weak growth rate in the first six months due to difficulties in manufacturing and consumption. However, the economy has showed signs of recovery in the second quarter of this year, especially in industrial and construction sectors which rose from 2.94 percent in the first quarter to 4.52 percent in the second quarter.
In the first six months, agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors increased 3.8 percent over the same period last year, of which agriculture rose 3 percent; forestry gained 5.7 percent; and fishery surged 5.8 percent.
Meanwhile, industrial production index posted a 4.5 percent growth, much lower than an increase of 9.7 percent in the same period last year.
Notably, some other industries, including shipbuilding, fruit and vegetable preservation, and dairy, saw high growth.
Consumption index of the processing industry only grew by 3.6 percent in the first six months, much lower than 7.5 percent last year, while inventory index soared 26 percent. Inventory of paper and packing division rocketed by 130 percent; of motor vehicles it escalated by 116.7 percent; and of fruit and vegetable preservation by 113.3 percent.
Vietnam’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) in June fell the first time in 38 months by 0.26 percent over the previous month. However, in the first six months of this year, Vietnam’s CPI rose by 2.52 percent compared to December last year.
Total budget revenues by June 15 reached VND316.8 trillion, or 42.8 percent of estimated target, of which revenues from inland accounted for VND203.2 trillion, and from crude oil VND52.3 trillion.
At the press conference, the General Statistics Office also released the result of a survey to check the number of businesses in the country this year. Accordingly, there were 541,103 companies existing legally in the entire country. In the first six months of this year, there were more than 36,195 newly established businesses with a total chartered capital of VND232.57 billion.
However, in reality, there were 92,710 businesses that were unaccounted for and could not be verified. At present, owners of 60,454 companies have fled the country or are not traceable. These companies, in fact, are bogus companies which were established to benefit from trade value-added tax invoices.
Unverified companies are mostly located in major cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Hai Phong.
