Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) reported that the commodity
market has returned to its normal status after the Lunar New Year
Festival and festive season.

It said both price and
consumption of food and household commodities have fallen sharply while
demand for raw materials has recovered.

Total
value of retail and services in March reached 211,301 billion VND, a
0.64 percent decrease over the previous month, pushing the first
quarter’s total value to 636,161 billion USD, up 11.66 percent compared
to the same period last year.

An increase of over
15 percent was seen in restaurants, hotels and services, while trade
rose just 10.74 percent and tourism only 3.96 percent.

MoIT has worked closely with relevant agencies and localities to
implement measures to balance demand and supply as well as stabilise the
market and curb inflation.

Accordingly, the
ministry has directed 44 localities, enterprises and corporations to
step up programmes to stockpile goods.

Besides,
Departments of Industry and Trade in localities have focused on ensuring
supplies of goods to the market, promptly meeting public demand,
encouraging distributors’ engagement in the programme “Vietnamese people
prioritise Vietnamese goods”, contributing to bringing goods to rural,
remote and border areas as well as islands.

According to the Department of Domestic Market under the MoIT, the
domestic economy will continue to face challenges including slow
consumption. At the same time, production will also see difficulties.
Bright signals have yet to be seen in the property market, but prices of
essential products have increased slightly, the department said.

It also forecast that in the next days, important commodities such as
coal and electricity will continue to follow market price. In
particular, demand for goods and services will surge in the coming
Liberation and Labour Day holidays, which fall on April 30 and May 1.

However, due to stable prices of food and consumer
goods, plus a steady exchange rate, the commodity market will experience
fewer fluctuations, the department added.-VNA

By vivian