After a month of implementing a 2% VAT reduction, various businesses have been able to cut costs in production and business activities while consumers also benefited from the reduced product prices, contributing to stimulating demands in the market.
The retail market in July increased sharply when the prices of many items reduced their VAT by 2%. In the photo: Customers are shopping at Aeon Mall in Binh Duong New City
Industry growth of 8.3%
Ngo Van Mit, Director of the provincial Statistics Office, said that through the survey, the production and business situation of enterprises in the province is still difficult, which has affected employment and income of workers. Over the past time, the province has mobilized all resources, focused on implementing tasks and solutions to remove difficulties for businesses and employees by deploying supporting packages on fiscal, credit and social security policies.
Realization shows that the solution of cutting value-added tax from 10% to 8% from the beginning of July applied to many groups of goods contributed to reducing production costs, lowering prices, thereby helped many businesses increase their resilience and expand production and business, created more jobs for employees. In addition, businesses have also actively participated in trade promotion programs organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the province. At the same time, businesses in the province have stepped up investment, diversified products, strengthened industry linkages to form supply chains, closed production, green production development, digital transformation, and increased production and sales localization to meet export regulations and standards, bringing efficiency.
As a result, the index of industrial production (IIP) in July 2023 increased by 2.3% compared to the previous month and increased by 8.3% over the same period. In which, the processing and manufacturing industry increased by 2.3% over the previous month and by 8.6% over the same period. Products with an increase in the index compared to the previous month include offee by 6.8%, yarn production by 4.1%, clothes by 6.2%, sports shoes by 2.1% among others.
In the first 7 months of 2023, although some key manufacturing industries of the province decreased, some positive growth industries were there contributing to the increase of the industrial production index. In which, the food production and processing industry increased by 8.10%, drinks by 23.02%, medicine, pharmaceutical chemicals and medicinal materials by 14.85%, motor vehicles by 7.4%, repair, maintenance and installation of machinery and equipment by 12.03%, electronic products, computers and optical products by 14.43% among others.
Stimulating market demands
It can be said that the reduction of bank interest rates, taxes and fees, especially the VAT cut by 2% from the beginning of July 2023 applied to a number of goods and services contributed to the reduction in the prices of goods and services and promoted production and business operations to create more jobs for workers, contributing to macroeconomic stability and economic recovery. In addition, the increase in the base salary from July 1 is also a factor to stimulate consumer demand. The changed policies, the inspection and control of prices to stabilize the market and control inflation are also concerned by the province to ensure an abundant source of goods at stable prices.
It is estimated that the total retail sales of goods and services in July 2023 will gain more than VND 25,233 billion or 16% over the same period. The accumulated 7 months of 2023 is expected to reach more than VND 174,820 billion or 12.4% compared to the same period last year. In which, retail sales of goods in the first 7 months of 2023 was 120,346, leading the retail market of food group with VND 34,587 billion, followed by the household goods group nearly VND 8,964 billion, the means of transportation more than VND 5,042 billion, and the petroleum group VND 8,330 billion. Notably, the revenue from accommodation, catering and travel services in 7 months gained more than VND 16,986 billion, increasing by 9.3% over the same period.
In the context of declining world demands, inflation and economic recession in many countries, reduced consumption demands of major trading partners, thus affecting import and export turnover, the province's trade balance of goods in the first 7 months of 2023 still yielded a trade surplus of USD 5.2 billion, of which the domestic-invested economic sector had a trade surplus of USD 1.5 billion, and the economic sector with foreign direct investment USD 3.6 billion. The US continues to be the export market with the highest proportion of the province with a total turnover of more than USD 6 billion. The US and Japan reached more than USD 2.8 billion and the EU market more than USD 2.5 billion.
Reported by Minh Duy – Translated by Vi Bao
