Industrial production inches up
Industrial production inches up
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in January rose 3 per cent from January last year but fell 6.2 per cent against December 2013, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said.
Economist Vu Quang Ha of the GSO noted that the mining and exploitation industry saw a strong decline of 9.6 per cent, thereby affecting the entire industrial sector.
The coal mining industry mined three million tonnes of coal, a decline of 24.7 per cent, while crude oil posted a loss of 1.3 million tonnes, or 0.5 per cent, compared to the same period in 2013.
Ha said the slight increase in the IIP in January was due to a growth of 6.6 per cent in the processing and manufacturing sector. This sector accounted for about 70 per cent of the total domestic industry.
The processing and manufacturing sector strongly grew in January, due to contributions from sub-sectors such as detergent, up 27.3 per cent; powdered milk, 22.4 per cent; television, 18.2 per cent; and rolled steel, 16.7 per cent. Contributions also came from processed seafood, up 10.5 per cent; automobiles, 8.8 per cent; and processed food, 12.3 per cent.
The inventory index of the manufacturing and processing industry declined 9.7 per cent, from 21 per cent in January 2013.
This growth rate for industrial production combined with the decline in the inventory index indicate that there will be a strong recovery in domestic industrial production in the next few months, noted economist Ha.
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