Ncov

Under the growing impacts of the pandemic, market demand is forecast to plunge, while oversupply and the burden of liquidating inventories would lead to lower selling prices.

Vietnam's trade turnover is expected to reach US$115.34 billion in the January – March period, down 0.7% year-on-year.

The CPI increased 5.56% year-on-year in the first quarter, the highest growth rate for a January-March quarter during the 2016 – 2020 period.

A survey in the manufacturing and processing in Q1 revealed nearly 60% of enterprises saw stability and even improvements in business performance compared to the previous quarter.

A positive economic growth rate in the first quarter indicated strong efforts of both the government and the society in maintaining business production while combating the Covid-19.

Enterprises should not rely solely on the government’s support, but take this opportunity to restructure operation and develop new products, said a local government official.

The Ministry of Finance expects to expand the scope of the support to a wider public.

Such low growth rate was due to the severe impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the hardest hit sectors being tourism, transportation, manufacturing, among others.

Companies in the industry could lay off 30% of their employees in April and 50% in May due to the lack of orders.

With the growing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, local businesses rely on supportive measures from the local authority to cope with hardship.