Purchasing power increases slightly

This is equivalent to US$51.7 billion, and a year-on-year increase of 8.8%.

The increase is estimated at 7.5% if the price factor is excluded, lower than the growth of the first four months of last year at 8.3%, and the lowest growth since the beginning of this year.

In particular, the growth of January is 11%, of the first two months is 8.3%, and of the first three months is 7.9%.

GSO expert Vu Manh Ha attributed the decrease in purchasing power of the first four months of this year to the significant growth of the consumer price index (CPI) of the first four months compared to the same period last year.

However, total sales have still seen a fairly positive increase.

Of these, the total revenue of retail goods, which account for more than 75% of the total revenue, hit US$39.5 billion, up nine%.

Of these, food and foodstuff retail increased 13%, garment retail increased 10.6%, transportation services 10%, home appliances 9.2% and retail of culture and education products increased 1.3%.

The total revenue of accommodation and restaurant service sales, which accounts for 11.2% of the total revenue, increasing eight% in the first four months.

Localities which have a high growth in the sector’s revenue include Thanh Hoa (15%), Ninh Binh (9%), Hanoi (nearly 9%) and HCM City (nearly 8%).

The total revenue of tourism and travel sector, which accounts for only 0.8%, also reached a growth of 8% in the first four months.

Of these, tourism of Lam Dong Province has the highest increase in revenue of 16.5%, followed by Can Tho Province (12%), Hanoi (8.1%) and HCM City (6.5%).