AsemconnectVietnam - Generally, in the first Quarter of 2018, the index of industrial production (IIP) for the whole industry increased by 11.6% over the similar period last year, much higher than the growth rate of the same period in recent years.

Of which, the manufacturing continued to grow at a high rate of 13.9% (with the main pillar being the production of computers, electronic and optical products and metal), contributed 10.5 percentage points to the general growth; the power generation and distribution grew at a stable rate of 10.5%, contributed 0.9 percentage points; the water supply and waste treatment increased by 7.1%, contributed 0.1 percentage points; the mining and quarrying went up by 0.4%, contributed 0.1 percentage points.
Consumption index for the whole manufacturing in the first Quarter of 2018 increased by 14.2% over the identical period in 2017. Stock index for the entire manufacturing as of March 31, 2018 was estimated to jump up by 6.4% from the same period last month and by 13.5% over the similar period last year; average stock rate in the first Quarter was 68.2%.
In the first Quarter of this year, the whole country had 26,785 enterprises registered for new establishment with a total registered capital of 278.5 trillion dongs, an increase of 1.2% in the number of enterprise and 2.7% rise in the registered capital compared with the same period in 2017. Average registered capital per newly established enterprise reached 10.4 billion dongs, up 1.5%. If including 485.5 trillion dongs of nearly 7900 turns of enterprises changed to raise the capital, the total registered capital added to the economy in the first Quarter of 2018 was 764 trillion dongs. Besides, there were 8449 enterprises returning to operation, down 8.9% over the similar period last year, bringing the total number of newly registered enterprises and re-operated enterprises in the first Quarter to more than 35.2 thousand enterprises. Total number of registered laborers of newly established enterprises in the first Quarter was 225.4 thousand people, a decrease of 22.7% against the same period in 2017.
The number of temporarily ceased enterprises in the first Quarter of this year was 20,337 ones, a decrease of 1.4% against the identical period last year, including 12,222 enterprises registered for time-limited temporary cessation of business, rising by 22.9% and 8115 enterprises temporarily suspended operation without registering or waiting for dissolution, falling by 24.1%. The number of enterprises which finished the procedure for dissolution in the first Quarter of 2018 was 3321 ones, an increase of 1.6% from the same period last year, of which there were 3038 enterprises with capital size of less than 10 billion dongs, accounting for 91.5%.
Survey results on business trends of enterprises in the manufacturing industry in the first Quarter of 2018 showed that: 33% of enterprises rated their business performance in the first Quarter of this year better than the previous quarter; 24.6% of enterprises pointed to difficulties and 42.4% of enterprises said that their business and production situation was stable. Expected the second Quarter compared with the first Quarter of this year, 55.7% of enterprises rated the trend would be improved; 10.4% of enterprises forecasted more difficulties and 33.9% of businesses thought that the business and production situation would be stable.
Total estimated retail sales of consumer goods and services in the first Quarter of 2018 reached 1048 trillion dongs, up 9.9% over the similar period last year, if excluding the price factor, the growth rate was 8.6% (a rise of 6.4% in the same period in 2017). By kinds of economic activity, retail sales of goods in the first Quarter of this year gained an estimate of 792.6 trillion dongs, accounting for 75.6% of the total and increasing by 10.5% from the same period last year; Sales of accommodation and catering services attained 128.9 trillion dongs, accounting for 12.3% of the total and rising by 9%; Sales of travelling achieved 10.2 trillion dongs, taking 1% of the total and increasing by 30.3%; Sales of other services achieved 116.3 trillion dongs, holding 11.1% of the total and growing by 5%.
Passenger carriage in the first three months of the year reached an estimate of 1049.8 million passengers, up 9.5% over the same period last year and 46.8 billion passengers-kilometres, up 10%. Cargo carriage achieved 391.5 million tons, up 8.8% compared with the identical period last year and 72.7 billion tons-kilometres, up 5.8%.
Telecommunication sales in the first Quarter of 2018 were estimated to gain 96.4 trillion dongs, an increase of 7.4% from the similar period last year. As of the end of March 2018, the total number of telephone subscribers was estimated to achieve 126.3 million subscribers, down 0.5% over the similar period last year, of which mobile phone subscribers reached 118.7 million ones, down 0.8%[11]; number of fixed broadband Internet subscribers was estimated to be 12.2 million subscribers, up 27.5%.
International visitors to Vietnam in the first Quarter of 2018 was estimated to reach 4205.4 thousand arrivals, a rise of 30.9% compared with the same period last year, of which visitors coming by airway gained 3365.7 thousand arrivals, moving up by 27.9%; by road: 719.9 thousand arrivals, rising by 53.6%; by seaway: 119.8 thousand arrivals, a rise of 6.9%. In the first three months of this year, visitors from Asia reached 3153.3 thousand of arrivals, up 37.6% over the identical period last year (of which ones from China reached 1356.4 thousand arrivals, up 42.9%; ones from South Korea gained 892.5 thousand arrivals, up 69.2%); visitors from Europe reached an estimate of 645.8 thousand arrivals, up 15.4%; visitors from the America reached 276.2 thousand arrivals, increasing by 11.5%; visitors from Australia gained 119.1 thousand arrivals, increasing by 13.5%; visitors from Africa achieved 11.1 thousand turns, a growth of 25.7%.
Source: General Statistics Office