Thefigure is a 6.5 percent decrease from the previous month, but posts a 7.2 percentyear-on-year rise, GSO said.
GSOstatistician Vu Manh Ha explained that the drop in retail sales and servicesrevenue in February was because Tet (Lunar New Year) fell in January, whenpeople spent a lot.
That’sthe reason the total retail sales last month, which accounts for three-fourthof the total purchasing power, dropped 7.6 percent compared to the previousmonth.
Thefirst two months of the year have seen a total retail sales and servicesrevenue of 604 trillion VND, which is a 5.6 percent year-on-year increase, ifrise in prices are ignored.
Retailsales saw a relatively high growth of 9.7 percent compared to the sametwo-month period last year, to reach 487.4 trillion VND.
Productsthat saw an increase in sales include food and foodstuff (10 percent), garmentsand textiles (9.6 percent), transport (9.4 percent) and home appliances (7.7 percent).Culture, tourism and educational products saw a low increase of 5.1 percent.
Thehotel-restaurant sector also posted a low growth rate of 4.2 percent in thefirst two months of the year, compared to the same period in 2016.
Thetotal revenue earned by the hotel-restaurant sector in Hanoi and HCM City saw a4.1 percent and 3.2 percent year-on-year decrease, respectively. A decline wasalso recorded in places such as Quang Ninh (37 percent), Lao Cai (30 percent), QuangBinh (15.2 percent), Phu Yen (29.4 percent) and Lai Chau (8 percent).-VNA