Vietnam's industrial production up 5.4% in first two months

Vietnam witnessed a recovery in industrial production during the first two months of 2014, with a growth of 5.4 percent year-on-year, said the country's General Statistics Office on Thursday. The processing and manufacturing sector, which accounts for the largest proportion of the country's industrial production, grew by 7.8 percent from a year earlier, contributing 5.4 percentage points to the country's total industrial production index (IPI) calculation. The sectors of power generation and distribution, and water supply and waste treatment saw increases of 8.5 and 5.8 percent, contributing 0.6 and 0.1 percentage points to the general growth, respectively. Meanwhile, the mining sector decreased by 3 percent, making the general IPI growth fall by 0.7 percentage points. The inventory index as of Feb. 1 rose 12.7 percent year-on-year, lower than 21.5 percent a year earlier. The index of employment as of Feb. 1 went up 5.1 percent year- on-year, with that in state-owned enterprises down 0.9 percent and in foreign invested enterprises up 8.2 percent, said the statistics agency. Despite the recovery in industrial production, the country still faces numerous difficulties due to week domestic demand, it said.