Industrial production rose by 21.1 percent inJanuary, which was attributable to rising consumer demand ahead of theTet holiday in February.
The country's export turnover posted10.1 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 43.2 percent. This has beenhailed as a good signal for the country's export sector this year.
Also in January, the country's import is estimated to have reached 9.9billion USD, a 0.4 percent increase from December 2012 and a 42.3percent rise compared to the same period last year.
Speaking atthe teleconference, Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang saidthat although export in January was up it remained unstable and hereminded businesses to focus on manufacturing high value items forexport in the electronics sector to raise the country's export value.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that the inventory indexremained high in some industries such as the processing andmanufacturing sectors. The sugar processing industry has seen a highinventory of 65 percent, a year-on-year increase of 18.2 percent.
The revenue collected from retail sales and services in Januarytotalled 209 trillion VND, a year-on-year increase of 8.1 percent.
To ensure supply during Tet, price stabilisation programmes are beingcarried out in 37 cities and provinces. Businesses have also prepared alarge volume of goods to be supplied for Tet.-VNA