The country’s total retail sales value of goods and services increased
by just 4.6 percent to 849.9 trillion VND (40.4 billion USD), according
to a General Statistics Office (GSO) report.
Vu Manh
Ha, an expert at the GSO’s Internal Economic Department, said this was
the lowest increase for many years. In the previous years, total retail
sales value of goods and services often increased by 7 percent to 10
percent.
Ha attributes the country’s low consumption
during the first four months of the year to low purchasing in both
domestic and foreign markets along with the global economic slowdown.
According to the GSO, in the first four months, the number of
businesses having stopped production rose by more than 14 percent
against the same period last year, while the number of newly established
business declined by 6.8 percent.-VNA