Vietnam Reports Retail Sales Up 30% at $28 Bln in First Half of 2008

Vietnam&rsquos total retail sales of goods and services are estimated at VND447.3 trillion ($28 billion) in the first half of 2008, a robust growth of 30% on year, reported the General Statistics Office (GSO).

 

The individual economic sector is the biggest seller with revenues of VND250.6 trillion, making up 56% of total and representing an increase of 33.7% on year.

 

The private sector is the runner-up with sales of VND130.4 trillion, or 29.1% of total. It registered the highest growth of 36.1% on year.

 

The state-owned sector accounting for 11.4% of total sales at VND50.9 trillion, the foreign-invested sector for 2.4% at VND10.9 trillion and the collective sector for 1.1% at VND4.7 trillion. They saw an on-year growth of 3.1%, 33.4% and 34.6%, respectively.

 

Regarding business, the trade sector is the biggest seller with revenues of VND368.7 trillion, up 30.3% on year, followed by the hotel and restaurant sectors with VND50.3 trillion, up 25.5%, the service sector with VND22.1 trillion, up 30.9%, and the tourism sector with VND6.3 trillion, up 45.3%.

 

The high growth of retail sales is mainly attributed to the surging prices of goods and services.

 

The country&rsquos consumer price index (CPI) is estimated to rise 20.34% on year in the first half. (GSO Jun 2008)