Vietnam's Retail Sales, Services Up 21.5% in First Four Months

Vietnam's retail sales and services in the first four months this year went up 21.5 percent over the same period last year to 360.4 trillion Vietnamese dong (21.2 billion U.S. dollars), according to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam on Monday.

Of which, trading experienced an increase of 22.2 percent to 16.6 billion U.S. dollars, hotels and restaurants up 18.4 percent to 2.4 billion U.S. dollars, tourism up 21.5 percent to 223 million U.S. dollars, and services up 16.3 percent to 2 billion U.S. dollars, said the office.

The increase in the country's retail sales and services in this period was attributed to the ongoing positive impacts of the government's timely stimulus package on investment and consumption, said Le Dinh An, director of the National Center of Information and Socio-Economic Forecast under the Ministry of Planning and Investment cited by the Vietnam Investment Review as saying.

An also forecast that Vietnam is likely to see the purchasing power in the coming months further increasing partially because of the higher monthly salary decided by the government taking effect since May 1 this year.