Retail sales up 9.5 percent in January

If inflation were excluded, the amount marked a year-on-year increase of 8.4 percent, a report of the General Statistics Office (GSO) revealed.Retail sales of goods topped more than 272 trillion VND (11.93 billion USD), up 3.5 percent month-on-month and 8.3 percent year-on-year as domestic firms focused on stockpiling goods to meet rising demand of local consumers for the forthcoming Lunar New Year (Tet)holiday, GSO said.The sectors recording a positive revenue increase include home appliances (up 8 percent), food and foodstuff (up 7.5 percent) and transport services (up 5.6 percent).Meanwhile, retail sales in accommodation, restaurant and catering services experienced a yearly increase of 15 percent to 45.1 trillion VND (198 million USD), thanks to a strong increase in the number of international and domestic tourists anda rising demand for restaurant and catering services.Some localities that posted positive accommodation, restaurant and catering sale in January were the northern province of Quang Ninh (30 percent), central Thanh Hoa province (15.2 percent), HCM City (9 percent) and the capital city of Hanoi (8.5 percent).In the first month of this year, revenue from tourism services also saw significant year-on-year growth of 39.3 percent to 3.9 trillion (171 million USD), with some provinces and cities recording strong growth, such as Ninh Binh (76 percent), Quang Ninh (46 percent), HCM City (44 percent), Bac Ninh (34 percent) and Hanoi (33 percent).The reviewed strong increase was attributed to the positive influence of the country's policies and measures on attracting visitors and effectiveness of its tourism promotion campaigns, GSO said.The sales of other services during January reached more than 40.1 trillion VND (1.76 million USD), a hike of 10 percent compared to a year ago.The annual growth rate (excluding the price factor) of the country's total revenue from retail sales of goods and services for the period from now to 2020 will average at 13 percent per year, and rise to 14 percent in 2021-25. The value will reach some 5.8 quadrillion VND by 2020, 11 quadrillion VND by 2025 and 44 quadrillion VND by 2035.These fingures were revealled inthe Ministry of Industry and Trade's draft strategy on domestic trade development, which is being publicised for recommendations.Domestic economic sector will account for some 80 percent of the country's total retail sales revenue by 2020, while the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector will make up about 20 percent before rising to 70 percent by 2025 as per off the draft strategy.

(Source: VNA)