Most companies confident of better performance in Q4

Up to 85.6 percent of the surveyed companies believe that their production and business situation will remain stable or improve in the last quarter of 2016. Among them, 48.8 percent expect improvement while another 36.8 percent hope for continued stability. 

About 50.3 percent of the businesses forecast their production output will increase from Q3 while 36 percent said it will remain unchanged. Only 13.7 percent said their production may decline. 

An augmentation in export orders is forecast by 38.6 percent of the questioned firms, and another 46.3 percent hope for the same volume of export orders as in Q3. 

The GSO said while 16.2 percent of the respondents believe their products will be sold at higher prices in Q4 compared to the previous quarter, 75.4 percent expect unchanged prices. Only 8.4 percent of the businesses predict lower prices. 

Meanwhile, 30.4 percent of the companies are confident of a drop in their unsold inventory, and 54 percent think their inventory will remain unchanged from Q3. 

As many as 91.3 percent of the surveyed enterprises plan to expand or maintain their workforce in the last quarter. Only 8.7 percent said they will reduce the number of employees. 

GSO General Director Nguyen Bich Lam highlighted a positive business panorama in the first nine months of 2016, including over 100,000 companies established or resuming their operations. Up to 95.8 percent of the 81,000 new businesses immediately went into operation, indicating a healthy economy.