In October alone, retail sales and service revenues saw a small increase of 0.8 percent month-on-month to 295.35 trillion VND. The total retail revenue of essential goods during the first ten months had a high growth rate of 9.3 percent to 2,201 trillion VND against the same period last year, while spending for tourism services rose by 6.8 percent to 270 trillion VND.
However, the growth rate of total retail sale and service revenues in the period from January to October was still lower than the 9.7 percent recorded during the first ten months of 2015, the GSO noted.
If inflation was excluded, the amount in the first ten months this year marked an increase of 7.4 percent, lower than the rate of 8.5 percent in the first ten months of 2015.
Vu Manh Ha, an expert of the GSO, said that the reduction in the growth rate of the total retail sales and service revenues in the first ten months was due to rain and floods in the central region, as well as drought in the southern region.
The weather conditions caused a drop in construction and housing repairs, while construction prior to the new school year ended, leading to a drop in the purchasing power of society.
Meanwhile, the consumer price index in the first ten months this year had an average growth rate of 2.27 percent year on year, higher than the average rate of 0.63 percent in the first ten months of 2015, Ha said. Therefore, the people must tighten additional consumer spending.
According to Mr.Vu Manh Ha, there would be many factors to push total retail sales and service revenues up in the two final months of the year, including Christmas, calendar and lunar new year holidays, buying clothes for winter, and spending for health care services during the winter
