Retail sales of consumer goods, services top 22 billion USD in May
Total revenue from retail sales of consumer goods and services in May was estimated at 519 trillion VND (22.09 billion USD), an increase of 1.5% over the previous month and 11.5% year on year thanks to the long holidays in the beginning of the month, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
Hanoi (VNA) – Total revenue from retail sales ofconsumer goods and services in May was estimated at 519 trillion VND (22.09billion USD), an increase of 1.5% over the previous month and 11.5% year onyear thanks to the long holidays in the beginning of the month, according tothe General Statistics Office (GSO).
The results pushed the total retail sales of consumer goodsand services in the first five months of this year to 2.52 quadrillion VND(107.2 billion USD), a year-on-year rise of 12.6%, excluding the 8.3% rise in price,the GSO reported.
It underlined that the result in the first five months ofthis year was the highest recorded in the same period since 2015,representing a surge of 28.3% over the same time in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic brokeout.
Specifically, in the January-May period, revenue from retailsales of goods was estimated at 1.99 trillion VND, up 10.7% year on year.Upturn was seen in sales of food and foodstuff (14.6%), garment and textile (11.1%),home appliances (4.8%), transport vehicle excluding automobiles (4.2%), andeducational and cultural products (1.9%).
Strong rise was seen in revenue from retail sales of goods inmany localities, led by Bac Ninh with 19.6%, Binh Dinh 14.8%, Binh Duong 13.8%,Thanh Hoa 12.1%, and Hai Phong 10.6%.
Meanwhile, revenue from accommodation and food services in the first fivemonths was estimated at 268.3 trillion VND, up 22.1% over the same period lastyear, and that from other services reached about 253.6 trillion VND.
Vice Director of Department of Planning and Finance underthe Ministry of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thuy Hien held that despite the increase, theconsuming power of the 100-million-strong market has yet to be fully exploited.
This is one of the reasons why the ministry proposed areduction of value added tax on a number of goods groups to catalyse consumption, she said, expressing her hope that the cut will help promote goodsproduction, job generation and State budget increase, thus contributing tocompleting the socio-economic development targets for this year.
Alongside, the ministry will also focus on implementingprogrammes to promote domestic trade, especially through digital platform ande-commerce, and support local firms to build trademarks, she said./.
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Illustrative image (Source: VNA) 
