Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam's enterprises feel positive about the business climate for thefourth quarter, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO) under theMinistry of Planning and Investment.

Theoffice reported that 52.6 percent of enterprises in the domestic processing andmanufacturing sector, participating in its survey on business trends, said thatlocal business would be better in the fourth quarter.

At thesame time, 11 percent of the enterprises predicted that local business would beweaker, while 36.4 percent said the business situation would remain stable.

Whenasked about the decisive factor that would affect the production and businessof enterprises in the third quarter, 59.4 percent of businesses said that thecompetitiveness of domestic goods was the most influencing factor.

Meanwhile,47 percent of participants said that low market demand would most influencetheir production and business. As many as 32.2 percent of businesses saidit was financial difficulties, 31.2 percent of them said it was due to the lackof qualified workers, 28.1 percent considered it to be high lending interestrates and 22.2 percent attributed this to competition generated from importedgoods.

Interms of production volume, 44.4 percent of businesses said that Q3 productionvolume had increased in comparison with the previous quarter, 18 percent ofthem said that the production volume had decreased and 37.6 percent of themsaid it had remained stable. 

As manyas 54.2 percent of participants predicted that production volume would increasein the fourth quarter. Only 9.9 percent forecast a fall in the productionvolume, while 35.9 percent said it would remain stable.

While38.1 percent of businesses have a higher amount of orders in the third quarter,as compared to the second quarter, 17.7 percent of them saw a lower number oforders and 44.2 percent of businesses said their orders had remained stable.

About48.9 percent of companies expected their orders to rise in the fourth quarter,10.4 percent of them forecast a reduction in orders and 40.7 percent ofbusinesses said orders might remain stable.

Regardingexport orders in the third quarter, as compared to the previous quarter, 32 percentof businesses said they had received higher export orders, 16.2 percent of themsaw reduced export orders and 51.8 percent of them saw export orders remainingstable.

For Q4,39.7 percent of enterprises expected to receive a higher amount of exportorders, 10.6 percent of them forecast a downtrend in export orders and 49.7 percentof businesses expected export orders to remain stable.

Interms of production costs, 23.8 percent of businesses said that the cost ofproduction in the third quarter had increased, as compared to the previousquarter, 7.5 percent of businesses said the cost had fallen and 68.7 percent ofthem said the cost had remained the same as the previous quarter.

As manyas 18.4 percent of participants expected production costs to increase duringthe fourth quarter, as compared to the third quarter, 9.6 percent of businessessaid costs would decline and 72 percent of them said they would remainunchanged.

Regardingthe selling price, 15.9 percent of businesses said that product prices in thethird quarter had risen, as compared to the previous quarter, 8.6 percent ofthem said the prices had reduced and 75.5 percent of businesses said priceswere the same as before.

As forthe fourth quarter, 15.9 percent of enterprises forecast that the sellingprices of products in the fourth quarter would be higher, 6.8 percent forecastlower prices, while 77.3 percent of them forecast stable prices.

Accordingto the General Statistics Office, in the first nine months of this year, nearly94,000 enterprises nationwide were established, with a registered capital of 902.7 trillion VND (40 billion USD), up 15.4 percent in terms of the number ofregistered enterprises and up 43.5 percent in terms of registered capital, ascompared to the same period in 2016.

Thenumber of enterprises, which suspended operations in nine months, was49,345, up 9.4 percent over the same period last year.-VNA