HÀ NỘI — The total national index of industrial production (IIP) rose by 0.7 per cent in January 2017 compared to the same period last year, according to General Statistics Office data.

The lagging growth was due to the week-long break during the Tết holiday, but it is still the lowest IIP January rise in the past 4 years, with January 2016 reporting a growth of 5.9 per cent.

Regardless, several sectors experienced a hike in production, such as textile’s 16 per cent rise, metal moulding’s 14.8 per cent growth, and vehicle engines’ 9.9 per cent increase.

Several other main industrial productions also achieved a fair growth compared to the same period in 2016, such as television sets growing by 35.2 per cent, steel by 22.3 per cent, cattle feed by 12.9 per cent, processed seafood rose by 12.5 per cent, crude steel by 7.2 per cent, chemical paint by 7.7 per cent and cement by 8.8 per cent.

Other products had had little to no growth, even experiencing some decreases due to difficult markets and low consumer demand, including leather footwear dropping by 2.8 per cent, natural textile up by only 0.9 per cent, motorbikes up by 1.6 per cent. More drastically, powdered milk dropped by 11.5 per cent, refined sugar dropped by 12.3 per cent, crude oil decreased by 15 per cent and natural gas sagged by 23.5 per cent.

Inventory index for January 2017 grew by 8.3 per cent, lower than the level of 9 per cent in the same period in 2016, which shows consumption is returning to a steadier pace.

By the end of December 2016, IIP for 2016 had experienced a total growth of 8.5 per lower than that of the same period in 2015’s 11 per cent. — VNS