Vietnam’s industrial production continued to face difficulties in August 2020 when the Covid-19 epidemic broke out again in late July.
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in August increased by about 3.5% over the previous month, and decreased by 0.6% over the same period last year. In particular, IIP of the mining industry decreased by 5.1%, that of the processing and manufacturing industry decreased by 0.1%, of electricity production and distribution decreased by 0.7%, of water supply, waste and sewage management and treatment increased by 2.2%.
For the first eight months of 2020, the IIP increased by approximately 2.2% over the same period last year, which is much lower than the 9.5% increase in the same period in 2019.
The new outbreak of the Covid-19 in Vietnam has not heavily affected the business community. The number of newly established enterprises in August increased by 1.5% compared to the previous month while the registered capital increased by 20.7%.
In August 2020, there were 13.4 thousand newly established enterprises with registered capital of 288.8 trillion VND, and the number of registered employees was 96.3 thousand. The average registered capital of a newly established enterprise was 21.6 billion VND, an increase of 18.9% over the previous month and 59.2% over the same period in 2019. There were 4,775 enterprises returning to operation, which is a 1.3% decrease over the previous month and a 200.9% increase over the same period in 2019.
For the first 8 months in general, there were 88.7 thousand newly established enterprises with a total registered capital of 1,225.2 thousand billion VND, and the total number of registered employees was 694.9 thousand employees, which is a decrease of 2% in terms of the number of enterprises, an increase of 6.5% in terms of registered capital, and a decrease of 16.5% in the number of employees over the same period last year.
Realized investment capital from the state budget in August 2020 was estimated at 47.4 trillion VND, increasing by 45.4% over the same period last year.
As of August 20, 2020, the total foreign investment capital in Vietnam, including newly registered capital, adjusted registered capital and capital contribution and share purchase reached 19.5 billion USD, a decrease of 13.7% over the same period last year. In particular, there were 1,797 newly licensed projects with registered capital of 9.7 billion USD. Realized FDI capital for the first eight months was estimated at 11.4 billion USD, a decrease of 5.1% over the same period last year.
The total retail sales of consumer goods and services in August was estimated at 422.9 trillion VND, which is a decrease of 2.7% over the previous month and an increase of 1.9% over the same period last year. To be more specific, retail sales of goods reached 334.3 trillion VND, of accommodation and catering services reached 41.3 trillion VND, of travel and tourism reached 974 billion VND, and of other service reached 46.3 trillion VND.
Generally, in the first eight months of 2020, the total retail sales of consumer goods and services reached 3,225.1 trillion VND, which is a decrease of 0.02% over the same period last year.
The complicated developments of the Covid-19 epidemic continue to negatively affect Vietnam's import and export activities. Total export and import turnover for the first 8 months of 2020 was estimated at 336.32 billion USD, down 0.3% over the same period last year.
August’s export turnover was estimated at 26.5 billion USD, an increase of 6.5% over the previous month. Compared to the same period last year, exports in August 2020 increased by 2.5%. Generally, for the first eight months of 2020, export turnover was estimated at 174.11 billion USD, an increase of 1.6% over the same period last year.
Import turnover in August was estimated at 23 billion USD, up 4.1% over the previous month. Generally, for the first eight months of 2020, import turnover was estimated at 162.21 billion USD, a decrease of 2.2% over the same period last year.
In August 2020, consumer price index increased by 0.07% over the previous month and decreased by 0.12% compared to December 2019. The consumer price index in August was higher than that in July, mainly due to the impact of the storm No. 2 that caused vegetable prices to increase.
Core inflation in August 2020 decreased by 0.01% over the previous month, and increased by 2.16% over the same period last year. Average core inflation in the first eight months of 2020 increased by 2.66% over the same period in 2019.
Source: GSO, Compiled by VietnamCredit
