Of which, the manufacturing continued to to be the spotlight for the growth of the overall industry with the increase rate of 12.7%, contributing 9.7 percentage points to the general growth; the power generation and distribution grew by 10.4%, contributing 0.9 percentage point; the water supply and waste treatment increased by 6.7%, contributing 0.1 percentage point; only the mining and quarrying dropped by 1.3% (mainly due to the 5.7% decrease of crude oil and natural gas exploitation), reducing 0.2 percentage point.

Consumption index of the whole manufacturing in the first months of 2018 increased by 11.09% over the identical period last year (it grew by 8.4% in the same period in 2017). Inventory index of the entire manufacturing as of June 30, 2018 was estimated to jump up by 11.4% from the same period last year (it went up by 10.4% in the same period in 2017); average inventory rate in six months was 63.4%, the lowest inventory rate in the last years.

In the first six months of this year, Vietnam had 64531 enterprises registered for new establishment with a total registered capital of 649 trillion dongs, an increase of 5.3% in the number of enterprise and 8.9% rise in the registered capital compared with the same period in 2017. Average registered capital per newly establishedenterprise reached 10.1 billion dongs, up 3.4%. If including 1192.2 trillion dongs of additionally registered capital of the enterprises which changed to raise the capital, the total registered capital added to the economy in six months of 2018 was 1841.2 trillion dongs. In addition, there were 16449 enterprises returning to operation, an increase of 7% over the similar period last year, bringing the total number of newly registered enterprises and re-operated enterprises in six months to nearly 81 thousand enterprises. Total number of registered laborers of newly established enterprises in six months was 508.5 thousand people, a decrease of 18.9% against the same period last year.

The number of temporarily ceased enterprises in the first half of 2018 was 52803 ones, an increase of 39.3% against the identical period last year, including 17984 enterprises registered for time-limited temporary cessation of business, rising by 25.1% and 34819 enterprises temporarily suspended operation without registering or waiting for dissolution, increasing by 48%^[9]. The number of enterprises which finished the procedure for dissolution in the first six months of 2018 was 6629 ones, an increase of 21.8% from the same period last year, of which there were 6053 enterprises with capital size of less than 10 billion dongs, accounting for 91.3% and growing by 20.6%.

 Business trends of enterprises

Survey results on business trends of enterprises in the manufacturing industry in the second Quarter of 2018 showed that: 45% of enterprises rated their business performance in the second Quarter of this year better than the previous quarter; 17.4% of enterprises pointed to difficulties and 37.6% of enterprises said that their business and production situation was stable. Expected the third Quarter compared with the second Quarter of this year, 52.5% of enterprises rated the trend would be improved; 11.5% of enterprises forecasted more difficulties and 36% of businesses thought that the business and production situation would be stable.

Total estimated retail sales of consumer goods and services in the first half of the year reached 2120.9 trillion dongs, up 10.7% over the similar period last year, if excluding the price factor, the growth rate was 8.3% (higher than the increase of 7.9% in the same period in 2017). By kinds of economic activity, retail sales of goods in the first six months of this year gained an estimate of 1597.4 trillion dongs, accounting for 75.3% of the total and increasing by 11.3% from the same period last year; Sales of accommodation and catering services attained 260.9 trillion dongs, accounting for 12.3% of the total and rising by 9.6%; Sales of travelling achieved 19.6 trillion dongs, taking 0.9% of the total and increasing by 19.5%; Sales of other services achieved 243 trillion dongs, holding 11.5% of the total and growing by 7.3%.

Passenger carriage in the first six months of the year reached 2262.4 million passengers, up 9.9% over the same period last year and 100.2 billion passengers-kilometres, up 10.6%. Cargo carriage achieved 796.2 million tons, up 9.3% compared with the identical period last year and 147.9 billion tons-kilometres, up 6.6%.

Telecommunication sales in the first half of 2018 were estimated to gain 188.3 trillion dongs, an increase of 5.1% from the similar period last year. As of the end of June 2018, the total number of telephone subscribers was estimated to achieve 126.9 million subscribers, an increase of 0.3% over the similar period last year, of which mobile phone subscribers reached 119.4 million ones, corresponding to the figure in the same period last year; the number of fixed broadband Internet subscribers was estimated to be 12.6 million subscribers, an increase of 25.4%.

International visitors to Vietnam in the first six months of 2018 was estimated to reach 7891.5 thousand arrivals, a rise of 27.2% compared with the same period last year, of which visitors coming by airway gained 6369.6 thousand arrivals, moving up by 22.2%; by road: 1348.2 thousand arrivals, rising by 63.7%; by seaway: 173.7 thousand arrivals, a rise of 1.7%. In the first half of this year, visitors from Asia reached 6067.2 thousand of arrivals, up 32.7% over the identical period last year (of which ones from China reached 2568.8 thousand arrivals, up 36.1%; ones from South Korea gained 1713.6 thousand arrivals, up 60.7%); visitors from Europe reached an estimate of 1087.5 thousand arrivals, up 11%; visitors from the America reached 493 thousand arrivals, increasing by 13.5%; visitors from Australia gained 223.1 thousand arrivals, increasing by 10%; visitors from Africa achieved 20.8 thousand arrivals, a growth of 22.2%.

Banking and insurance operations

As of June 20, 2018, the total payment means increased by 7.96% over the end of 2017 (it  grew by 5.69% in the same period last year) according to the General Statistics Office (GSO); capital mobilization of credit organizations grew by 7.78% (it increased by 5.89% in the same period last year); credit growth of the economy in the first six months of 2018 reached 6.35% (it put up by 7.54% in the corresponding period last year).

Current mobilizing interest rates were relatively stable. Lending interest rates were commonly at 6-9% p.a for short term loans (For the group of customers with transparent financial situation, short term lending interest rates were at 4-5% p.a.); 9-11% p.a for medium and long term loans.

Insurance market in the first six months of the year maintained the positive growth. Insurance premium revenues of the whole market in the first half of 2018 were estimated to increase by 23% compared with the same period in 2017, of which life insurance premium revenues rose by 32%; non-life insurance premium revenues grew by 13%.

Total realized social investment capital in the first half of 2018 at current prices was estimated at 747.6 trillion dongs, up 10.1% over the identical period last year and equalling 32.9% of GDP, of which the State sector’s capital gained 249.8 trillion dongs, accounting for 33.4% of the total capital and increasing by 3.3% from the same period last year; the non-State sector’s capital obtained 308.4 trillion dongs, taking 41.3% and growing by 17.5%; the FDI sector’s capital attained 189.4 trillion dongs, representing 25.3% and moving up by 8.5%.

In the investment capital of the State sector, total realized investment capital under the State budget in the first six months of 2018 reached an estimate of 124.2 trillion dongs, equalling 36% of the annual plan and increasing by 9.4% against the similar period last year (it equalled 36.9% of the yearly plan and grew by 6.1% in the similar period in 2017), of which the capital under central management obtained 22.8 trillion dongs, equalling 34.6% of the annual plan and decreasing by 7.6% compared with the same period last year; the capital under local management achieved 101.4 trillion dongs, equalling 36.3% of the annual plan and increasing by 14.1%.

From the beginning of the year to June 20, 2018, FDI attracted 1366 newly licensed projects with the total registered capital of US$ 11799.8 million, up 15.5% in the number of projects and down 0.3% in the registered capital against the similar period in 2017. Besides, there were 507 turns of license-granted projects from previous years registered to adjust investment capital with the additional capital of US$ 4434.2 million, down 13.8% from the same period last year. Thus, the total of newly registered capital and additional capital in six months reached US$ 16234 million, down 4.4% from 2017’s same period. Realized FDI capital in the first half of 2018 was estimated at US$ 8.37 billion, increasing by 8.4% over the identical period in 2017.  In the first six months of 2018, there were 2749 turns of capital contribution and share purchase of foreign investors with a total capital contribution of US$ 4.1 billion, a growth of 82.4% against the same period in 2017, of which 390 turns of capital contribution and share purchase increased the charter capital of enterprises with the contributed capital of US$ 1.4 billion and 2359 turns of foreign investors bought back domestic shares without increasing charter capital with the value of US$ 2.7 billion.

Vietnam’s direct investment abroad in the first six months of this year had 67 projects newly granted the Outward Investment Registration Certificate with Vietnam’s total investment capital of US$ 222.5 million; 16 capital adjustment projects with additional capital of US$ 40.6 million. Generally, Vietnam’s total offshore investment capital (newly granted and additional capital) in the first half of 2018 gained US$ 263.1 million, of which the field of finance and banking reached US$ 106.2 million, accounting for 40.4% of the total investment capital; the field of agriculture, forestry and fishery reached US$ 63.7 million, holding 24.2%; the field of manufacturing achieved US$ 48.9 million, representing 18.6%. In six months, there were 27 countries and territories receiving Vietnam’s investment, of which the leading was Laos, accounting for 31.9% of the total investment capital; followed by Slovakia with 13.7%; Cambodia with 12.3%.

Source: The General Statistics Office