Vietnam’s manufacturing, exports expand in February

Vietnam, a Southeast Asian production base for multinationals, achieved increases of 3.6% and 11% in industrial production and exports, respectively, in February from a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said Tuesday.

The February performance is reported amid current global economic headwinds and declining import orders.

Vietnam’s industrial production in January, which included the Lunar New Year holiday, dropped 8% year-on-year. Therefore, in the first two months of 2023, the country’s manufacturing shrank by 6.3% compared to the same period last year.

According to the GSO, exports expanded by 11% in February to $25.88 billion after dropping 21.3% in January. The first two months’ export value hit about $49.44 billion, down 10.4% year-on-year.

The period’s import spending reached about $46.62 billion, down 16%. In February alone, import spending recorded $23.58 billion, down 6.7% from a year earlier. Vietnam saw a trade surplus of $2.3 billion in February.

The consumer price index (CPI) in February rose 4.31% year-on-year. The reasons, according to the GSO, are domestic gas and petroleum prices having increased in line with world fuel prices, and the cost of housing rising due to increasing demand after the Lunar New Year holiday.

Among the 11 main groups in the CPI, nine saw price increases while the other two went the opposite direction. The group with the highest rise was education, up 10.4% over the same period last year.

The group of housing and construction materials increased by 7.88%, followed by 4.74% in the group of entertainment and tourism.