HÀ NỘI — The national industrial production index (IIP) in February was estimated to decrease by 16.8 per cent over the previous month due to the Lunar New Year holiday, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

However, February’s IIP increased 10.3 per cent year-on-year.

Of which, the office said the index increased 12.8 per cent month on month for the processing and manufacturing industry, 10.9 per cent for electricity production and distribution, and 7.2 per cent for water supply and waste treatment.

Meanwhile, the mining industry had a reduction of 5 per cent in February’s IIP.

In the first two months of this year, the IIP was estimated to rise by 9.2 per cent year on year but was lower than the growth rate of 13.7 per cent in the first two months of 2018.

During the first two months, the IIP rose 11.5 per cent in the processing and manufacturing industry, 9.5 per cent in the electricity production and distribution industry, and 7.9 per cent in the water supply and waste treatment industry.

The mining industry faced a fall of 4.7 per cent in IIP over the first two months.

Some other products had high production index compared with the same period last year, including coke and refined petroleum products (up 92.1 per cent), metal products (up 35.8 per cent) and motor vehicles (up 20.9 per cent).

Besides that, some major industrial products also had strong growth of IIP in the first two months of this year such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (up 101.2 per cent), gasoline and oil (up 96.1 per cent), iron and crude steel (up 75.9 per cent), televisions (up 37.1 per cent), and urea fertiliser (17.9 per cent).

However, there were some products with IIP dropping, like sugar (down 3.8 per cent), natural gas (down 4 per cent), telephone parts (down 5.3 per cent), mobile phones (down 7.6 per cent) and exploited crude oil (down 11.9 per cent).

At the same time, the IIP of 61 out of 63 provinces and the Government-controlled cities increased over the same period last year. Of which, Thanh Hóa Province gained the highest growth rate IIP at 46.7 per cent because the Nghi Sơn oil refinery and petrochemical plant in the province officially began commercial operation in December.

Following was Hà Tĩnh Province’s IIP with 46.2 per cent due to Formosa Group’s contributions.

Meanwhile, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Province’s IIP decreased by 3 per cent due to declining crude oil exploitation and Hòa Bình Province, down by 5.3 per cent due to the reduction of electricity output of Hòa Bình Hydropower Plant.

Some other localities having growth in IIP included Hải Phòng City (23.7 per cent), Vĩnh Phúc (19.6 per cent), Quảng Nam (11.1 per cent), Hải Dương (9.4 per cent), Quảng Ninh (8.5 per cent), Đồng Nai (7.8 per cent), HCM City (6.2 per cent); Hà Nội and Bình Dương (6.1 per cent for each) and Đà Nẵng (5.8 per cent). — VNS