Industrial production up 16.1% in January

The nation's industrial production valuethis month is estimated to grow by 16.1 percent to 73.7 trillion VND(3.5 billion USD) against the same period last year, according to theGeneral Statistics Office.

The growth rate was bettercompared with last January but the value declined by 2.5 percentcompared with December, said Statistics Office economist Nguyen QuangHa. The industrial value early last year was low due to the economicdownturn but got better in the latter part of the year thanks toeconomic recovery.

The increase in production value in thefirst month of this year was a sign of possible high-speed growth inthe industrial sector this year, he said.

Many keyindustrial sectors had strong growth in production during Januaryagainst the same period last year, including liquefied petroleum gas(36.2 percent), sport shoes (35.1 percent), ceramic tiles (32.5percent), auto and tractor tires (26.8 percent), glass (20.7 percent),cement (18.9 percent, clothes (17.2 percent), steel (15.9 percent) andelectricity (14.3 percent).

However, some consumer goodshad a reduction in output for the first month. The output fell by 78.2percent for air conditioning, 41.6 percent for trucks, 15.3 percent fortelevisions and 13.6 percent for assembled autos.

Duringthe first month of this year, the foreign-invested sector showed thelargest industrial production value at 31.7 trillion VND (1.5 billionUSD), 18.5 percent higher than the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the private sector saw a 18.9-percent year-on-year rise inproduction value to 27.2 trillion VND (1.3 billion USD) and the valuemade by the State-owned industrial sector had a slight increase of 6.7percent to 14.8 trillion VND (704.7 million USD)./.