Domestic retail sales on the rise as exports fall

HCM City (VNA) - Retail sales revenues nationwide totalled around 98.5 trillion VND
(5.7 billion USD) in January, says the General Statistics Office.

This marks a year-on-year increase of 27.1 percent, the office reports.

The two major cities, Hanoi and HCM City , together accounted for 37,700
billion VND (2.2 billion USD), or 31.4 percent of the total national revenues from
retails sales, up from 22 percent last January.

However, export turnover of goods in January this year is estimated at 3.8 billion
USD, a decrease of 18.6 percent over last month and 24.2 percent over the same
period last year.

Imports have also declined in January by 27.6 percent over the previous month, at
4.1 billion USD. This is a significant 44.8 percent lower than last January figures.

The GSO says the fall in import and export turnover has been caused by a sharp
decrease in the prices of key products in the world market, with that of petrol,
plastic, textile fibre and steel falling respectively by 56.2, 33.7, 29.2 and 9.4
percent compared to the same period last year.

As a result, Vietnam 's trade deficit in January was about 300 million USD, as
against 2.4 billion USD recorded during the same month last year, the office
said.-Enditem