Industrial production up 9.1 percent in Q1

A component production line of the Minda Vietnam Automotive Company (Photo: VNA)

The index grew 9.1 percent, compared with 5.3 percent in the first quarter last year and 4.9 percent in 2013.

GSO analysts attributed the improvement to the industrial consumption index's strong growth in the first two months of this year. It rose 14.7 percent on the year, much more than last year's 4.3 percent during the same period.

The processing and manufacturing sector, which contributed more than three fourths of overall growth, increased 9.6 percent, as opposed to 7.4 percent in Q1 last year.

About 61.5 million mobile phones were produced during the first quarter, doubling last year's output. Meanwhile, production of powdered milk fell by 16.8 percent.

Other industrial products posting high IIP increases during Q1 included automobiles (52.6 percent), television sets (38.6 percent), food for aquatic products (27.4 percent), chemical paint (17.2 percent), leather and footwear (16.3 percent), fresh milk (16.2 percent), rolled steel (12.4 percent) and petroleum (9.8 percent).

Products with low IIP included aquatic products and seafood (8.9 percent), cement (5.9 percent), coal (3.2 percent) and natural gas (0.2 percent).

Sectors with decreased IIP included sugar (0.1 percent), clothes (0.3 percent), liquefied gas (6.5 percent) and motorbikes (11.8 percent).

The country's IIP increase is still low compared with increases of 14 to 16.17 percent before the world economic downturn period.

GSO analysts attributed the slower growth to low product competitiveness. Fake versions of domestic products were sold at much lower prices.

Source VNA