SOCIO-ECONOMIC SITUATION IN FIVE MONTHS OF 2019

1. Production of agriculture, forestry and fishery

a) Agriculture

In the winter-spring rice crop this year, the whole country cultivated 3,123.4 thousand hectares (ha), equaling 100.7% of the recorded figure in the same period last year, of which the localities in the North reached 1,116.7 thousand ha, equaling 99% (a decrease of 10.9 thousand ha) because some localities converted a part of the rice-growing area to use for other purposes[1]; the localities in the South gained 2,006.7 thousand ha, equaling 101.6%.

The Southern provinces, as of mid-May, harvested 1,918.1 thousand ha of winter-spring rice, accounting for 95.6% of the sown area and equaling 101.9% that figure in the same period last year. Together with the harvest of winter-spring rice, the localities in the South sowed 1,165.9 thousand ha of summer-autumn rice, equaling 104.5% of the recorded figure in the similar period in 2018 (the Mekong Delta achieved 1,077.8 thousand ha, equaling 104.6%).

As of mid-May, 463.7 thousand ha of maize were planted nationwide, equaling 95.8% of the same period last year; 70.4 thousand ha of sweet potatoes, equaling 98.1%; 134.2 thousand ha of peanut, equaling 98.5%; 21.4 thousand ha of soya, equaling 96.4%; 628.9 thousand ha of vegetables and beans, equalling 101.2%.

The whole country’s buffalo population in the month was estimated to decrease by 3.2% over the same period last year; ox population increased by 2.9%; poultry population increased by 7.1%; pig population decreased by 5.5%.

+ Agricultural production as of May 15, 2019

b) Forestry

Generally for the first five months of the year, the concentrated planted forest area was estimated to reach 85.9 thousand ha, a decline of 6.9% compared to the same period last year; the number of separate planted trees gained 28.1 million trees, a decline of 3.2%; wood production achieved 5,370 thousand m3, a rise of 4.5%; firewood production recorded 7.3 million steres, a decrease of 1.7%.

Generally for the first five months of the year, damaged forest area was 496.7 ha, an increase of 23.9% against the same period last year, of which burnt forest area was 290.4 ha, a rise of 49%; destroyed forest area was 206.3 ha, a growth of 0.2%.

c) Fishery

Generally for the first five months of the year, estimated fishing production reached 3,004.5 thousand tons, increasing by 6.2% from the corresponding period last year, of which the output of aquaculture gained 1,496.7 thousand tons, a growth of 7%; the production of fishery caught achieved 1,507.8 thousand tons, a rise of 5.4% (the production of sea catching reached 1,441.3 thousand tons, up 5.5%).

2. Industry

Index of industrial production (IIP) for the whole industry in May 2019 was estimated to increase by 4.6% from the last month and by 10% compared to the same period last year. Generally for the first five months of 2019, IIP was estimated to put up by 9.4% over the similar period last year, lower than the growth rate of 10.3% in the identical period in 2018 and higher than the increase rate of 7.4% and 6.6% in the same period in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

The number of employees working in industrial enterprises as of May 01, 2019 climbed by 1.4% over the same period last month and by 2.2% against the similar period last year, of which employees in the State enterprise sector decreased by 0.9%; employees in the non-State enterprise sector grew by 1.3%; and employees in the FDI enterprise sector went up by 3.1%.

+ Industrial Production Index
+ Main industrial products
+ Labor employed index (LEI) for industrial enterprises

3. Business registration situation[2]

Generally for the first five months of this year, the whole country had nearly 54 thousand enterprises  registered for new establishment with a total registered capital of 669.7 trillion dongs, a rise of 3.2% in the number of enterprise and an increase of 29.6% in the registered capital compared with the same period in 2018. Average registered capital per newly established enterprise reached 12.4 billion dongs, up 25.6%[3]. Total registered capital added to the economy in five months of 2019 was 1,657.1 trillion dongs, including 987.4 trillion dongs of the additional  capital of enterprises increasing their capital. In addition, there were 19.6 thousand enterprises returning to operation, a rise of 48.1% over the similar period last year, bringing the total number of newly registered enterprises and re-operated enterprises in five months to over 73.6 thousand enterprises. Total number of registered employees of the newly established enterprises in the first five months of this year was 537.1 thousand persons, a rise of 30.2% against the same period last year.

The number of temporarily ceased enterprises with a certain time in the first five months of this year was 19.1 thousand ones, an increase of 19.4% against the identical period last year. In the first five months of this year, 19,354 enterprises suspended operation waiting for dissolution procedures, of which 9,522 enterprises have their business registration certificates revoked under the 2018 data standardization program, accounting for 49.2% of the total enterprises suspended their operation to wait for completing dissolution procedures; the number of enterprises which announced their dissolution was 5,234 ones, accounting for 27% and 4,598 ones are waiting for dissolution procedures, accounting for 23.8%.

The number of enterprises which completed dissolution procedures in the first five months of 2019 was 6,371 ones, a rise of 15.1% over the same period last year, of which 5,755 ones had the capital size of less than 10 billion dongs (accounting for 90.3% of the total enterprises which completed dissolution procedures), an increase of 13.7%.

+ Number of enterprises registered for new establishment
+ Number of re-operated enterprises by kinds of activity
+ Number of enterprises ceased for a certain period of time by kinds of activity
+ Number of enterprises completed dissolution procedures

4. Investment

Generally for the first five years of this year, total realized investment capital under the State budget achieved 99.5 trillion dongs, equaling 28.9% of the annual plan and increasing by 3.1% against the similar period last year (it equaled 27.4% and rose by 9.3% in the same period last year), of which the capital under central management obtained 12.3 trillion dongs, equaling 26.5% of the annual plan and decreasing by 29.8% from the similar period last year; the capital under local management reached 87.2 trillion dongs, equaling 29.2% of the annual plan and increasing by 10.3% compared with the identical period in 2018.

From the beginning of the year to May 20, 2019, FDI attracted 1,363 newly licensed projects with the total registered capital of US$ 6,457.9 million, an increase of 26.7% in the number of projects and 38.7% in the registered capital against the similar period in 2018. In addition, there were 505 turns of license-granted projects from previous years registered to adjust investment capital with the additional capital of US$ 2,628.8 million, a rise of 5.5% from the same period last year. Thus the total of newly registered capital and additional capital in the first five months of the year reached US$ 9,086.7 million, increasing by 27.1% from 2018’s same period. Realized FDI capital in the first five months of 2019 was estimated at US$ 7.3 billion, increasing by 7.8% over the identical period in 2018.  In five months, there were 3,160 turns of capital contribution and share purchase of foreign investors with a total contributory value of US$ 7.65 billion, 2.8 times as high as that in 2018’s same period, of which 614 turns of capital contribution and share purchase increased the charter capital of enterprises with the contributed capital of US$ 5.33 billion and 2,546 turns of foreign investors bought back domestic shares without increasing charter capital with the value of US$ 2.32 billion.

In the first five months of the year, there were 46 provinces and centrally-run cities that received newly licensed foreign direct investment projects from 59 countries and territories.

Vietnam’s direct investment abroad in the first five months of 2019 had 55 projects newly granted the Outward Investment Registration Certificate with Vietnam’s total investment capital of US$ 98.3 million; 14 projects adjusting the capital with additional capital of US$ 84.8 million. Generally, Vietnam’s total offshore investment capital (including newly granted and additional capital) in five months of 2019 gained US$ 183.1 million.

+ Realized investment capital under the State budget in May and 5 months of 2019
+ Licensed FDI projects from January 01 to May 20, 2019

5. Government revenues and expenditures

Total estimated government revenues from the beginning of the year to May 15, 2019 achieved 553.5 trillion dongs, equaling 39.2% of the annual estimate, of which domestic revenues recorded 447.6 trillion dongs, equaling 38.1%; collecting from crude oil gained 21.8 trillion dongs, equaling 48.9%; from export-import balance obtained 83.3 trillion dongs, equaling 44%. In domestic revenues, revenue from State owned enterprises was 60.9 trillion dongs, equaling 34.3% of the yearly estimate; revenue from foreign-invested enterprises (excluding crude oil) was 77.2 trillion dongs, equaling 36.1%; 94.2 trillion dongs were collected from non-State industrial, commercial and service taxes, equaling 39%; personal income tax revenue was 48.2 trillion dongs, equaling 42.6%; 18.1 trillion dongs were collected from environmental protection tax, equaling 26.3%; land use fees reached 39.2 trillion dongs, equaling 43.5%.

Total government expenditures from the beginning of the year to May 15, 2019 was estimated at 486.9 trillion dongs, equaling 29.8% of the yearly estimate, of which regular expenditures were 358.2 trillion dongs, equaling 35.8%; expenditure on development investment achieved 82.5 trillion dongs, equaling 19.2%; expenditure on interest payment was 43.9 trillion dongs, equaling 35.2%.

6. Trade, prices, transport and tourism

a) Retail sales of consumer goods and services

Generally, in the first five months of 2019, total estimated retail sales of consumer goods and services reached 1,983.7 trillion dongs, increasing by 11.6% against the same period last year, if excluding the price factor, the growth rate was 8.6% (it increased by 8.5% in the same period in 2018).

By kinds of economic activity, retail sales of goods in the first five months of the year gained an estimate of 1,518 trillion dongs, accounting for 76.5% of the total and a fairly good increase of 12.7% over the similar period last year. Estimated sales of accommodation and catering services in the first five months of the year recorded 236 trillion dongs, accounting for 11.9% of the total and moving up by 9.2% from the same period last year. Sales of travelling in five months achieved an estimate of 18.4 trillion dongs, representing 0.9% of the total and climbing by 12.4% against the similar period last year. Sales of other services in five months were estimated at 211.3 trillion dongs, taking 10.7% of the total and expanding by 6.1% compared to the identical period in 2018.

+ Total retail sales of consumer goods and services

b) Exports and imports of goods

Exports of goods

Generally, in the first five months of 2019, export turnover of goods was estimated at US$ 100.74 billion, a rise of 6.7% over the same period in 2018, of which the domestic economic sector achieved US$ 30.33 billion, moving up by 11.6%, accounting for 30.1% of the total export turnover; the FDI sector (including crude oil) gained US$ 70.41 billion, increasing by 4.7%, accounting for 69.9% of total export turnover (the proportion reduced 1.3 percentage points from the corresponding period last year).

Regarding merchandize export market in the first five months of 2019, the United States was the biggest export market of Vietnam with the turnover of US$ 22.6 billion, up 28% over  the same period last year; followed by EU with US$ 17.3 billion, an increase of 1.9%; China with US$ 13.4 billion, a decline of 2.6%; ASEAN with US$ 10.6 billion, an increase of 5.2%; South Korea with US$ 7.9 billion, a growth of 8.9%; Japan with US$ 7.7 billion, a growth of 4.4%.

Imports of goods

Generally, import turnover of goods in the first five months of 2019 reached an estimate of US$ 101.28 billion, moving up by 10.3% from the same period in 2018, of which the domestic economic sector gained US$ 43.61 billion, climbing by 15.2%; the FDI sector achieved US$ 57.67 billion, jumping up by 6.9%.  

About merchandize import market in the first five months of 2019, China was still the largest import market of Vietnam with turnover of US$ 29.6 billion, up 18.9% against the corresponding period last year; followed by South Korea with US$ 19.2 billion, increasing by 1.1%; ASEAN with US$ 13.9 billion, climbing by 9.3%; Japan with US$ 7.4 billion, moving down by 0.5%; EU with US$ 5.8 billion, growing by 23.6%; the United States with US$ 5.7 billion, going up by 8.2%.

Generally, in five months of 2019, Vietnam had a trade surplus of US$ 548 million[4] (trade surplus of US$ 2.6 billion in the same period last year), of which the domestic economic sector recorded a trade deficit of US$ 13.28 billion; the FDI sector (including crude oil) saw a trade surplus of US$ 12.73 billion.

+ Exports
+ Imports

c) Consumer price indexes (CPI), gold and US dollar price indexes

Average CPI in the first five months of 2019 expanded by 2.74% from the similar period in 2018. CPI in May 2019 increased by 1.5% against December 2018 and by 2.88% from the identical period last year.

Core inflation in May 2019 moved up by 0.13% against the previous month and by 1.9% from the same period last year. Average core inflation in the first five months of this year increased by 1.85% over the similar period in 2018.

Gold price index in May 2019 decreased by 0.5% against the previous month, increased by 2.27% from December 2018 and fell by 1.02% from the same period in 2018.

The US dollar price index in May 2019 put up by 0.45% over the previous month, decreased by 0.01% against December 2018 and increased by 2.41% compared to the same period in 2018.

+ Consumer price indexes, gold, US dollar price indexes and core inflation in May 2019

d) Transport of passenger and cargo

Generally, in the first five months of 2019, transport of passenger reached 2,073.4 million passengers, a rise of 10.6% over the corresponding period last year and 93.9 billion passengers-km, a rise of 9.3%, of which domestic transport gained 2,065.8 million passengers, an increase of 10.6% and 73.1 billion passengers-km, an increase of 9.1%; overseas transport achieved 7.6 million passengers, an increase of 10.5% and 20.8 billion passengers-km, an increase of 9.9%. By type of transport, transport by road achieved 1,960 million passengers, a rise of 10.8% against the same period last year and 65.6 billion passengers-km, a rise of 10.1%; transport by inland waterway gained 84.9 million passengers, a growth of 7.8% and 1,656.1 million passengers-km, an increase of 6.7%; transport by seaway reached 3.2 million passengers, 5.5% increase and 189.4 million passengers-km, 5.5% growth; transport by airway recorded nearly 22 million passengers, a rise of 8.3% and 25.1 billion passengers-km, a rise of 8.6%. Only transport by railway reached 3.3 million passengers, a decline of 8.1% and 1,350.3 million passengers-km, a decrease of 9.8%.

Generally for five months, the freight reached 684.8 million tons, an increase of 8.9% against the similar period last year and 130.2 billion tons-km, going up by 6.8%, of which the domestic freight reached 671.1 million tons, an increase of 9% and 73.4 billion tons-km, an increase of 10%; oversea freight reached 13.7 million tons, a growth of 2.3% and 56.8 billion tons-km, an increase of 2.9%. By type of freight, freight by road reached 526.6 million tons, an increase of 9.7% compared to the identical period last year and 35.2 billion tons-km, a rise of 9.4%; freight by inland waterway reached 122.7 million tons, an increase of 6.7% and 25.7 billion tons-km, an increase of 5.2%; freight by seaway reached 33.2 million tons, an increase of 5.8% and 67.4 billion tons-km, a rise of 6.5%; freight by railway reached 2.2 million tons, a decrease of 10.2% and 1.5 billion tons-km, a drop of 9.6%; only freight by airway reached 163.5 thousand tons, a rise of 13.4% and 412.7 million tons-km, an increase of 12.2%.

+ Carriage of passengers and cargos

e) International visitors to Vietnam

Generally for the first five months of this year, international visitors to Vietnam was estimated at 7,295.5 thousand arrivals, a rise of 8.8% compared to the same period last year, of which visitors coming by airway gained 5,721.9 thousand arrivals, moving up by 6.3%; visitors coming by road gained 1,443.6 thousand arrivals, increasing by 23.7%; visitors coming by seaway achieved 130 thousand arrivals, decreasing by 17.5%.

In the first five months of the year, visitors from Asia recorded 5,603.4 thousand arrivals, accounting for 76.8% of the total number of visitors coming to Vietnam, increasing by 9.9% over the identical period last year. Visitors from the Europe reached 1,034.7 thousand arrivals, a rise of 5.9% from the same period last year. Visitors from the America gained 441.6 thousand arrivals, increasing by 4.9% over the corresponding period last year. Visitors from the Australia 196.2 thousand arrivals, moving up by 1.5%. Visitors from the Africa achieved 19.7 thousand arrivals, put up by 9.2% against the same period in 2018.

+ International visitors to Vietnam

7. Social issues

a) Farmers’ food shortage

Generally, in the first five months of 2019, there were 63.2 thousand households suffering from food shortage over the country, down 30.5% from the same period last year, corresponding to 255 thousand persons suffering from this problem, down 29.4%. To overcome this problem, from the beginning of the year, all administrative levels, sectors and organizations from central to local level supported difficult households with 3.6 thousand tons of rice.

b) Epidemic diseases and food poisoning

Generally for the first five months of the year, the whole country had  nearly14.4 thousand cases of hand, foot, mouth disease (2 cases died); 58.2 thousand cases of hemorrhagic fever (3 cases died); 187 cases of virus encephalitis (8 cases died); 11 cases of meningococcal disease; 21.8 thousand cases of scarlet fever suspected for measles, of which 3.4 thousand cases tested positive for measles (1 death) and 806 persons suffering from food poisoning (5 persons died).

Total number of alive HIV-infected persons over the country as of May 18, 2019 was 209.28 thousand persons and 96.29 thousand cases turned to AIDS. The number of persons died of HIV/AIDS nationwide as of above time-point was 98.29 thousand persons.

c) Traffic accidents

Generally, in the first five months of 2019, 6,779 traffic accidents occurred nationwide, including 3,632 cases of traffic accidents from less serious to become and 3,147cases of traffic collisions, causing 3,128 deaths, 2,024 injuries and 3,230 minor injuries. Compared to the same period last year, the number of traffic accidents in the first five months of this year declined by 9.5% (number of traffic accidents of differently serious levels reduced by 6.4%; number of traffic collisions decreased by 12.8%); number of death fell by 10%; number of injuries went up by 1.8% and number of minor injuries dropped by 14.4%. On average, 45 traffic accidents occurred nationwide each day in the first five months of the year, including 24 traffic accidents from less serious to become and 21 traffic collisions, causing 21 deaths and 13 injuries and 21 minor injuries.

d) Damages caused by natural calamity

Generally for the first five months of the year, natural calamity made 15 persons died and lost, 28 persons injured, 533 houses collapsed and swept away, 18 thousand houses damaged and roof ripped-off, 15.3 thousand ha of rice and crops damaged. The total loss caused by natural disasters in five months was estimated at 372 billion dongs.

e) Environment protection, fire and explosion prevention

Generally, in the first five months of the year, 4,204 cases of violating regulations of environment protection were found over the country, of which 3,686 cases were treated with total fine of 39.7 billion dongs.

Generally for the first five months of this year, there were 1,581 fire and explosion cases occurring nationwide, causing 55 deaths and 83 injuries, with an estimated damage of over 484 billion dongs.

GENERAL STATISTICS OFFICE

[1] In which: 3000 ha of rice land were recovered and cleared for industrial parks, road construction, infrastructure for tourist areas and new urban areas; 2,9 thousand ha were converted to grow perennial crops; more than 0.8 thousand ha were converted to plant other annual crops; and 0.9 thousand ha were converted to aquaculture; the rest is unused to cultivate due to lack of labor or water for irrigation.

[2] Source: National Business Registration Information System, Agency for Business Registration, Ministry of Planning and Investment.

[3] In five months of 2018, the number of newly registered enterprises increased by 3.5% compared to the same period in the previous year; the registered capital went up by 6.4%; average registered capital per enterprise expanded by 2.8%.

[4] Of which, trade surplus with EU was US$ 11.6 billion, down 0.9% from the same period last year; trade deficit with China was US$ 16.2 billion, up 45.9%; trade deficit with South Korea was US$ 11.3 billion, down 3.6%; trade deficit with ASEAN was US$ 3.3 billion, up 25.7%.