HANOI, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's national index of industrial production advanced 1.8 percent year-on-year between January and April, according to the country's General Statistics Office on Monday.
The main driver of the rise, the processing and manufacturing sector, went up 3 percent, contributing 2.5 percentage points to the overall growth.
Electricity production and distribution sector grew 2.9 percent, contributing 0.3 percentage points, and water supply and waste management grew 3.6 percent, contributing 0.1 percentage points.
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, scarcity of imported inputs has severely impacted the industrial activities, said the office. Production of beer witnessed the largest output reduction year-on-year, at 24.1 percent, followed by automobiles (down 23.8 percent), refined sugar (down 23.5 percent) and crude oil (down 12 percent).
Meanwhile, outputs of phone components went up 28.5 percent, monosodium glutamate up 19.2 percent, and petroleum and oil up 13.9 percent.
As of April 1, the total number of employees in the industrial sector declined by 1.6 percent year-on-year. Employment in the mining businesses and processing and manufacturing ones went down 3.2 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, said the office. Enditem
