Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Vietnam’s index of industrial production (IIP)increased 10.5 percent on-year in the first half of 2018, the GeneralStatistics Office (GSO) reported.

The metric was higher than the 7 percentgrowth recorded in the same period last year, the GSO said.

The GSO attributed this year’s IIP growthto breakthroughs in the processing and manufacturing sector, which rose 12.7 percent,contributing 9.7 percentage points to the overall IPP.

According to the GSO’s General DirectorNguyen Bich Lam, the processing and manufacturing industry was a bright spotfor the economy, driving the overall growth of the industry.

“It is one of the three sectors, together with the agro-forestry-fishery andservices, to achieve impressive growth and contribute a substantial 7.08 percentof gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first six months of 2018, thehighest rate in the first half of the year since 2011,” Lam said.

Some manufacturing sectors in the secondaryindustry enjoyed significant growth compared to the same period last year andcontributed to the general growth of the whole industry sectors including,metal production (20 percent), coal and refined petroleum products (20.3 percent),electronics, computer and optical products (17.5 percent), medicine, pharmaceuticalchemicals and pharmaceutical material production (16.2 percent).

Among the key industrial products thatposted high IIP increases in the six months were raw steel and iron (43.7 percent),fabric (22.1 percent), sugar (19 percent), liquefied petroleum gas (18.5 percent),feed for seafood (17.8 percent) and television (17 percent).

However, some other sectors saw lowergrowth, especially wood processing and products made from bamboo (2.6 percent).

Some sectors recorded industrial productiondeclines. The stone-sand-gravel mining industry went down by 0.7 percent;repair-maintenance and installation of machinery and equipment dropped by 2.7 percentand crude oil and natural gas exploitation fell by 5.7 percent.

Among the significantly reduced products,crude oil was down 10.9 percent.

Running in parallel with the increase inindustrial production in the first half of the year, the consumer index of themanufacturing and processing industry also posted an increase of 11.9 percent overthe same period last year. In addition, the inventory index fell to its lowestlevel in the last four years at 63.4 percent, compared to 75.4 percent; 70 percentand 71.1 percent in the first halves of 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Lam also warned that the statistics showed a downward trend in industrialproduction when the IIP increased by 12.9 percent in the first quarter of 2018and 8.4 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period of 2017. Likewise,the processing and manufacturing sector, which accounts for over 80 percent ofthe whole industry, increased 15.7 percent in Q1 and 10.1 percent in Q2.

In the second half of the year, the IIPwould see a downward trend as the mining and petroleum industry would be downdue to unfavorable weather conditions. Besides, the processing andmanufacturing sector would slow because Samsung Electronics Vietnam and FormosaSteel Corporation, which accounted for up to 40 percent of the industry, hadreduced production due to lower consumption, Lam added.-VNS/VNA