Survey reflects optimistic business outlook for Q4

The office reported that 52.6 percent of enterprises in the domestic processing and manufacturing sector, participating in its survey on business trends, said that local business would be better in the fourth quarter.

At the same time, 11 percent of the enterprises predicted that local business would be weaker, while 36.4 percent said the business situation would remain stable.

When asked about the decisive factor that would affect the production and business of enterprises in the third quarter, 59.4 percent of businesses said that the competitiveness of domestic goods was the most influencing factor.

Meanwhile, 47 percent of participants said that low market demand would most influence their production and business. As many as 32.2 percent of businesses said it was financial difficulties, 31.2 percent of them said it was due to the lack of qualified workers, 28.1 percent considered it to be high lending interest rates and 22.2 percent attributed this to competition generated from imported goods.

In terms of production volume, 44.4 percent of businesses said that Q3 production volume had increased in comparison with the previous quarter, 18 percent of them said that the production volume had decreased and 37.6 percent of them said it had remained stable.

As many as 54.2 percent of participants predicted that production volume would increase in the fourth quarter. Only 9.9 percent forecast a fall in the production volume, while 35.9 percent said it would remain stable.

While 38.1 percent of businesses have a higher amount of orders in the third quarter, as compared to the second quarter, 17.7 percent of them saw a lower number of orders and 44.2 percent of businesses said their orders had remained stable.

About 48.9 percent of companies expected their orders to rise in the fourth quarter, 10.4 percent of them forecast a reduction in orders and 40.7 percent of businesses said orders might remain stable.

Regarding export orders in the third quarter, as compared to the previous quarter, 32 percent of businesses said they had received higher export orders, 16.2 percent of them saw reduced export orders and 51.8 percent of them saw export orders remaining stable.

For Q4, 39.7 percent of enterprises expected to receive a higher amount of export orders, 10.6 percent of them forecast a downtrend in export orders and 49.7 percent of businesses expected export orders to remain stable.

In terms of production costs, 23.8 percent of businesses said that the cost of production in the third quarter had increased, as compared to the previous quarter, 7.5 percent of businesses said the cost had fallen and 68.7 percent of them said the cost had remained the same as the previous quarter.

As many as 18.4 percent of participants expected production costs to increase during the fourth quarter, as compared to the third quarter, 9.6 percent of businesses said costs would decline and 72 percent of them said they would remain unchanged.

Regarding the selling price, 15.9 percent of businesses said that product prices in the third quarter had risen, as compared to the previous quarter, 8.6 percent of them said the prices had reduced and 75.5 percent of businesses said prices were the same as before.

As for the fourth quarter, 15.9 percent of enterprises forecast that the selling prices of products in the fourth quarter would be higher, 6.8 percent forecast lower prices, while 77.3 percent of them forecast stable prices.

According to the General Statistics Office, in the first nine months of this year, nearly 94,000 enterprises nationwide were established, with a registered capital of 902.7 trillion VND (40 billion USD), up 15.4 percent in terms of the number of registered enterprises and up 43.5 percent in terms of registered capital, as compared to the same period in 2016.

The number of enterprises, which suspended operations in nine months,was 49,345, up 9.4 percent over the same period last year.