Vietnam's retail sales, service revenue down 0.4 pct in 7 months

HANOI, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's total goods retail sales and consumer service revenues decreased 0.4 percent year-on-year between January and July to about 2,799.6 trillion Vietnamese dong (121.7 billion U.S. dollars), according to the country's General Statistics Office on Monday.

Specifically, Vietnam's goods retail sales stood at nearly 2,218 trillion Vietnamese dong (96.4 billion U.S. dollars), up 3.6 percent, with sales of home appliances growing 7.6 percent, food and foodstuffs growing 7.5 percent, and transport declining 6.4 percent.

The increase in retail sales in the seven-month period was attributable to the fact that various promotion programs had been launched in July to push domestic consumption, expand markets and recover the economy affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, said the office.

In the seven-month period, restaurant and accommodation revenues totaled over 280.9 trillion Vietnamese dong (12.2 billion U.S. dollars), down 16.6 percent, and tourism revenues stood at nearly 11.1 trillion Vietnamese dong (482.4 million U.S. dollars), down 55.4 percent, according to the office.

In 2019, Vietnam's total goods retail sales and consumer service revenues rose 11.8 percent year-on-year to nearly 4,940 trillion Vietnamese dong (214.8 billion U.S. dollars). Specifically, its goods retail sales surged 12.7 percent to over 3,751 trillion Vietnamese dong (163.1 billion U.S. dollars).