Vietnam industrial output rises slightly

Oct 30, 2009, 8:44 GMT

   Hanoi - Vietnam's industrial production rose in October for the third-consecutive month, but economists said Friday that they were not confident the trend would continue.

   'I am not reassured by this figure because I doubt its sustainability,' senior independent economist Pham Chi Lan said.

   Lan said the rise in industrial output was dependent on the government's billion-dollar stimulus package implemented this year.

   Industrial output in October rose to 3.6 billion dollars in October, up 3.2 per cent from September, and to 33.4 billion dollars for the first 10 months of the year, up 7 per cent from the same period a year ago, General Statistics Office official Pham Tien Nam said Friday.

   Those growth rates are lower than those recorded in previous years because of the global economic crisis. Vietnam's industrial output rose 14 to 17 per cent in each of the previous three years.

   Economist Le Dang Doanh said most of the growth stemmed from increased oil and coal production while manufacturing growth was more modest.

   The country earned 4.8 billion dollars in exports in October, up 4.5 per cent from September. Vietnam's trade deficit in the first 10 months of the year hit 8.8 billion dollars, down from 16.4 billion dollars over the same period last year.

   Growth in its gross domestic product fell from 8.5 per cent in 2007 to 6.2 per cent last year. The government initially set a target for economic growth of 6.5 per cent this year, but the sharp drop in production and exports forced it to readjust the target to 5 per cent in May.