Vietnam’s economy in April and 4 beginning months of 2006

1. Output of agriculture, forestry and fishery

Agriculture: As of 15^th April, in the North there were 1138.9 thousand ha of spring paddy planted, accounting for 100.4% of last year’ same period, of which 557.1 thousand ha were in the Red River Delta, equaling 98.6%. Provinces in the South harvested 1624.4 thousand ha of spring paddy, accounting for 88.5% of cultivated areas and equaling 100.4% over last year same period, of which the Mekong River Delta almost completed the harvest.

Along with this harvest, the provinces in the South sowed rice seed for 657.5 thousand ha of summer-autumn crops, equaling 86.6% against same period last year, of which 637.5 thousand ha were in the Mekong River Delta, equaling 86.8%.

In the whole country, there were 472.5 thousand ha of maize, equaling 101.3%, 112.8 thousand ha of sweat potato, equaling 95%, 129.7 thousand ha of cassava, equaling 125.7%, 187.5 thousand ha of peanut, equaling 108.1%… over same period last year.

Forestry: Localities over the country are strengthening the protection of forest fire, as the weather is getting dry and drought. There were 32 fire cases, damaging 22 ha of forest, mainly in Kon Tum, Cao Bang, Dien Bien, Lai Chau and Tay Ninh provinces.

Fishery: Gross fishing output for the four beginning months was 1126.3 thousand tons, increasing by 6% over same period last year, of which raising was 390.4 thousand tons, increasing by 12%; 735.9 thousand tons of catching, increasing by 3.1%.

2. Industrial output

Due to rapid increase in industrial production in April, the industrial output for four months of 2006 increased by 15.6% against same period last year and nearly 1-point percent over the increase rate of Quarter I. The state sector increased by 8.3% (center management by 11.8%; local management decreased by 0.2%); the non-state sector 20.2% and the FDI sector 18% (oil and gas decreased by 2.5% and others increased by 23.5%).

3. Investment

Performance of capital construction investment under the state budget in the four months was estimated at 16.54 trillion VND, accounting for 29.5% of the year plan. Central units achieved 5.24 trillion VND, accounting for 30.1%; local units 11.3 trillion VND, accounting for 29.2% of the year plan.

Foreign direct investment: From the beginning of the year to 20/4/2006 there were 199 licensed projects with total registered capital 1.91 billion USD, increasing by 12.4% in number of projects and 31.9% in registered capital over same period last year. Beside that, in four months 117 projects were funded with more capital. The additional amount was 359 million USD that made the total capital rise up to 2.3 billion USD, increasing by 7.4% over same period last year. 26 countries and territories were granted licenses to invest in Viet Nam of which Hong Kong (China) led the first rank in registered capital with 613 million USD, accounting for 32% of the total; South Korea 417 million USD, accounting for 21.8%; Japan 310 million USD, accounting for 16.2%.

4. Trade, prices and services

Total retail sales of consumer goods and services at current prices for the four beginning months were estimated at VND 175.9 trillion, increasing by 19.4% against same period last year (if rising price factor is excluded, the growth is over 11%). Of the total, the state sector achieved 21.2 trillion VND, increasing by 7.8% over same period last year; the collective sector 1.8 trillion VND, rising by 20.4%; the private sector 37 trillion VND, rising by 24.6% and the FDI sector 4.5 trillion VND, increasing by 21.8%.

Consumer prices in April 2006 increased by 0.2% against last month, of which prices of almost commodity groups rose from 0.1% to 0.4%: food and foodstuff rose by 0.2%; household equipment had the highest rate of 0.4%. The food prices in April increased by 0.3% and fluctuated from 0.1% to 0.8% all over the country; foodstuff rose by 0.2%, mainly due to high prices in big cities. Housing and construction materials fell by 0.3%; culture, sport and entertainment by 0.2%.

As compared with December 2005, consumer prices of April 2006 increased by 3%, of which prices of all commodity and service groups rose, particularly food and foodstuff prices rose by 4.2%. Consumer prices rose by 7.3% against April last year.

Gold prices rose rapidly. Gold prices in April 2006 rose by 4.8% over last month and 16.9% against last December, due to the an increase in international gold prices, the local demand for buying jewelry and national reserves of many countries as well as people’ liking to hoard gold. USD prices increased slightly over last month and last December, at a rate of 0.1%.

Export turnovers for the four months increased well, estimating at US$ 12.11 billion, accounting for 32.1% of the year plan, increasing by 25.1% against same period last year. Export turnovers excluding crude oil achieved US$ 9.48 billion, increasing by 28.1%, of which the domestic economic sector was US$ 5.19 billion, rising by 22.2% and the FDI sector was US$ 4.29 billion, rising by 35.9%.

The exports of 20 commodity groups rose over same period last year. Crude oil led the first rank with an estimate of 2.63 billion USD, rising by 15.6%; coal export volume in four months achieved 62.1% of the year plan, increasing by 70.4% and its turnovers were 280 million USD, increasing by 47.8% over same period last year. Textiles achieved 1.74 billion USD, rising by 38.7%; footwear exports began to reduce because the import tax has been applied in the EU market since 7/4/2006. Generally, its turnovers in 4 months achieved 1.07 billion USD, increasing by 21.4% over same period last year but lower than the rate in the 1^st Quarter. Electronics achieved 540 million USD, rising by 18.1%. Seafood was in the 4^th rank in export turnovers with 845 million USD, increasing by 6.4% and equaling 27.3% of the year plan. Exportation of agricultural products happened in different tendencies: rice decreased in both volume (7.5%) and value (9%); rubber had the highest rates in volume (52.3%) and value (116%); cashew nut decreased by 5.9% in value and increased by 18.9% in volume; peanut was only equal to 28.1% of export volume and 31.7% of export turnovers of same period last year.

Import turnovers in four beginning months of 2006 were estimated at US$ 12.33 billion, increasing by 6.9% over same period last year and accounting for 29% of 2006-year plan, of which the domestic economic sector achieved US$ 7.55 billion, accounting for 61.2% of the total, increasing by 0.3%.  This was relatively lower than the general growth rate and much lower than the rate 19.3% of the FDI sector. Notably, domestic importation increased slowly as home production often requires the importation of a lot of amount of materials and equipment. The lower rate of importation, which implies the prices rising factor made the import volume of some materials lower than those of same period last year and affected the domestic production in the following months.

International visitors to Vietnam in the four early months were estimated at 1,286.8 thousand, increasing by 15.9% over same period last year, of which arrivals for business purpose increased by 34.3%; for tourist purpose by 16.5%; for visiting relatives by 14.6% but visitors for other purposes decreased by 5.6%. Visitors from countries having over 100 thousand persons to Viet Nam continuously raised: South Korea: 154.9 thousand persons, increasing by 53.3%; Japan: 118.6 thousand, by 34%; United States: 136.9 thousand, by 26.5%.

Communication: New telephone subscribers in April 2006 were estimated at 600,000, that brought the total subscribers in 4 months to 2.3 million and to the end of April the whole country had about 17.7 million subscribers. Of which the Post and Telecommunication Corporation had 14.8 million subscribers, accounting for 83.8% of the total subscribers. Internet services continuously develop in both subscribers and new types of service. To the end of April, there were 659 thousand additional new subscribers, bringing total internet subscribers to 3.6 million.

Total turnovers of the Communication in 4 months were estimated at 10.9 trillion VND, of which income from telecommunication was 9.9 trillion VND, from post 440 billion, from others 493 billion VND.

Tags: Vietnam economic 2006, Vietnam economic statistics, Vietnam's economy situation