Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi Report Strengthening Economic Numbers

May 5, 2014 Posted by Vietnam Briefing Reading Time: 3 minutes

HCMC –Vietnam’s capital Hanoi and its economic center Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) have both reported positive economic numbers for the first four months of 2014. April has proven to be a particularly auspicious month for both cities.

HCMC

The HCMC People’s Committee has issued a report highlighting a number of areas where the city has posted strong economic numbers. The reported numbers include:

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Retail sales and services revenue for the first four months of 2014 was VND204.5 trillion (US$9.7 billion) – an increase of 12.1 percent year on year (Y/Y)
- April retail sales and services revenue totaled VND 51.79 trillion (US$2.5 billion) – a 3.9 percent increase over March and a 11.7 percent increase Y/Y
CPI in April decreased 0.04 percent from December 2013
Total export revenue for the first four months of 2014 was US$8.85 billion – a 0.6 percent increase Y/Y
- April saw exports worth US$2.42 billion – a 22.1 percent Y/Y
The industrial production index saw, for the first four months of 2014, a 5.2 percent increase Y/Y

Government officials were quick to take credit for the perceived effectiveness of their recent actions to boost business in the city. Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, Le Hoang Quan, was quoted during a recent meeting as saying that “the city has seen positive signs of economic recovery in the January-April period [which] proves the effectiveness of the city’s socio-economic development measures.”

In order to keep economic growth moving in a positive direction, HCMC has announced its intention to issue further measures intended to improve the ease of doing business within the city. The local government will also provide advantageous conditions for businesses to obtain bank loans with favorable interest rates.

Hanoi

Hanoi is also seeing strong positive growth in a number of key areas in its economy. Over the past four months, Hanoi’s export turnover has seen a dramatic increase of 11.6 percent for a total of US$3.448 billion. Local export turnover saw an increase of 10.7 percent.

In April, exports totaled US$883 million – a 9.9 percent increase Y/Y. Local export turnover increased 8.9 percent over the previous month.

Most major export commodities saw an increase in export turnover; in particular, garments and textiles as well as glass products saw strong growth. However, agricultural products and computer components both saw decreasing numbers.

Vietnam’s GDP growth for 2014 has been predicted to be in the range of 5.5 – 5.6 percent, slightly higher than last year.

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