Production of motorbikes hit 1.25 million units. — Photo vietnamnet.vn

Viet Nam News HÀ NỘI — The national index of industrial production (IIP) surged 7.5 per cent in the first five months compared to the same period last year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported.

The index has been trending upward since the beginning of this year with an increase of 5.9 per cent in January, 6.6 per cent in the first two months, 6.3 per cent in the first three months and 7.3 per cent in the first four months.

However, according to GSO economists, the growth of industrial production in the five months is low compared to last year’s at 9.4 per cent.

Experts attributed the slower industrial production growth to the decline in product consumption as the consumption index of the first four months of this year rose about 9 per cent while in the same period last year it rose nearly 13 per cent.

As consumption was lower, many industries cut production.

Production of motorbikes hit 1.25 million units, down 2.3 per cent; footwear was 93.8 million pairs, down 2.9 per cent; sugar was 1.12 million tonnes, down 3.4 per cent; mobile phones were 83.6 million units, down 9.8 per cent; and crude oil was 6.6 million tonnes, down 4.5 per cent.

However, some industries saw a high consumption rate, as well as high production growth. The textile sector saw a 21.4 per cent growth in consumption and metal production rose 18.2 per cent while electronic and optical sector grew 12.4 per cent.

Many enterprises employed more labourers to increase production, with the number of labourers working at the enterprises rising 6.1 per cent year-on-year by May 1 this year. Of these, the number of labourers of foreign direct investment (FDI) firms saw the highest increase at 8.7 per cent, that of non-State firms was 4.5 per cent and of State-owned firms 0.2 per cent.

Industrial enterprises in the northern province of Thái Nguyên saw the highest growth in labourers at 35.3 per cent, followed by Vĩnh Phúc (13.3 per cent), Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu (9.1 per cent), Đồng Nai (8.2 per cent) and Bình Dương (6 per cent), meanwhile, Hà Nội and HCM City saw the lowest growth of 0.8 and 1 per cent, respectively. — VNS