This was reported by the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The index saw a year-on-year growth rate of 9.3 percent in the first quarter of 2015, 8.2 percent in the first quarter of 2016 and 5.1 percent in the first quarter of 2017.

At a press conference on March 29 reporting the country’s socio-economic performance in the first quarter, GSO director Nguyen Bich Lam said the high growth of the industry contributed to maintaining the domestic economic development since the previous year.

The manufacturing and processing sector, accounting for 90 percent of the industrial value, saw the strongest IIP growth at 13.6 percent since 2012. The robust growth of IIP contributed significantly to the 7.38 percent growth rate of the gross domestic product in the first quarter of this year, the best first-quarter performance in the last 10 years.

Lam said the manufacturing of electronic products, computers and optical products as well as steel production contributed strongly not only to the growth of the industry but also to overall economic development.

In the first quarter of 2018, the mining sector experienced a growth rate of 0.4 percent in IIP due to the recovery of coal, metal and gas production, after two consecutive years of IIP reduction.

Electricity production and distribution had a stable IIP growth rate of 10.5 percent, while IIP increased 13.7 percent for the textiles and garment industry and 12.8 percent for beds, wardrobes and tables.

Some major industrial products posted high growth in the first three months of this year, including raw steel, powdered milk, television and fish feed.

However, some other products recorded a low growth or reduction in IIP, such as animal feed, fertilisers and crude oil.

According to GSO, the high growth rate of industrial production in the first quarter of this year was partly due to the high growth rate of consumption market at 14.2 percent year-on-year, with high consumption of pharmaceuticals, electronic products, computers and motor vehicles.

The high consumption supported lower growth in inventory at 6.4 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the growth rate of 13.5 percent in the same period last year.

In the first quarter of 2018, the industry had low inventory of motor vehicles, electrical equipment, paper and paper products, leather and leather products, drugs and pharmaceuticals.