Survey reflects optimistic business outlook for Q4

The office reported that 52.6% 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% of the enterprises predicted that local business would be weaker, while 36.4% 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% of businesses said that the competitiveness of domestic goods was the most influencing factor.

Meanwhile, 47% of participants said that low market demand would most influence their production and business. 

As many as 32.2% of businesses said it was financial difficulties, 31.2% of them said it was due to the lack of qualified workers, 28.1% considered it to be high lending interest rates and 22.2% attributed this to competition generated from imported goods.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As for the fourth quarter, 15.9% of enterprises forecast that the selling prices of products in the fourth quarter would be higher, 6.8% forecast lower prices, while 77.3% 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 VND902.7 trillion (US$40 billion), up 15.4% in terms of the number of registered enterprises and up 43.5% 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% over the same period last year.