HCM City: February retail sales, service revenue drop
Total retail sales of goods and service revenue in Ho Chi Minh City approximated 239.27 trillion VND (10.4 billion USD) in February, down 5.4 percent month on month but up 11.2 percent year on year.
HCM City (VNA) – Total retail sales of goods andservice revenue in Ho Chi Minh City approximated 239.27 trillion VND (10.4billion USD) in February, down 5.4 percent month on month but up 11.2 percentyear on year.
That included almost 73.6 trillion VND in retailsales, falling 5.2 percent from January but still rising 4.6 percent from thesame period last year, the municipal Department of Industry and Trade said onMarch 2.
Meanwhile, total retail sales of goods andservice revenue in the first two months is estimated at over 491.23 trillionVND, up 8.2 percent year on year.
The department explained that since Februaryfollowed the Lunar New Year holiday, consumption demand fell, especially forcommodities in such groups as garment, timber and building materials. Besides,the decline in retail sales and service revenue last month was alsoattributable to the COVID-19 outbreak, which discouraged people from coming topublic places like shopping centres or supermarkets.
Director of the authority Pham Thanh Kien saidin this context, his department has been working with businesses, retailers andsmall traders to tackle difficulties facing them and coordinate goods suppliesto meet people’s demand as consumption habits, purchasing power and prices ofsome goods are currently under impact of COVID-19./.
Ministries need to analyse the impact of coronavirus on both international and domestic markets, then deliver short-term and long-term solutions, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said on January 31.
Though Vietnam’s economy will suffer in the short term from the novel coronavirus epidemic, the country’s drive to integrate into the global economy will continue to create plenty of new opportunities for trade and investment in the long run, experts have said.
The February consumer price index (CPI) slipped 0.17 percent from the previous month due to falling demand for goods after Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, falling petrol prices, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
Ho Chi Minh City reported a decrease of 0.18 percent in its consumer price index in February compared with that of the previous month, according to the municipal Statistics Office.
The total retail sales and service revenue rose 8.3 percent year-on-year to over 863.9 trillion VND (37.4 billion USD) in the first two months of 2020, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
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Consumers shop in a supermarket (Photo: VNA) 
