Vietnam's industrial production up slightly in H1

HANOI, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's national index of industrial production advanced 2.7 percent year-on-year in the first half this year, according to the country's General Statistics Office on Tuesday.

Main driver of the rise, the processing and manufacturing sector, went up 4.96 percent, contributing 1.1 percentage points to the overall growth.

Electricity production and distribution sector grew 3.04 percent, contributing 0.15 percentage points, and water supply and waste management grew 3.76 percent, contributing 0.03 percentage points.

Complex developments of the COVID-19 outbreak in several countries have caused negative impacts on supplies imported for industrial production, especially the processing and manufacturing sector. Besides, stricter penalties recently imposed on drunk driving by the Vietnamese government have hit the production of the beverage sector, the office said.

Production of automobiles witnessed the largest output reduction year-on-year, at 26.6 percent, followed by refined sugar (down 23.7 percent), beer (down 17.4 percent) and crude oil (down 13.9 percent).

Meanwhile, outputs of phone components went up 27.5 percent, petroleum and oil up 20.9 percent, and monosodium glutamate up 12.3 percent.

As of June 1, the total number of employees in the industrial sector declined by 2.3 percent on-year. Employment in the processing and manufacturing businesses dropped 2.3 percent, while that of mining ones went down 2.2 percent, said the office.