Customers shop at Saigon Co.op Mart. The purchasing power of Vietnamese residents increased slightly in the first eight months of this year. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vu

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The purchasing power of Vietnamese residents increased slightly in the first eight months of 2014, following an increase in the purchase of goods and services.

Officials of the General Statistics Office (GSO) attributed the slight increase to a 0.25 per cent increase in the total retail sales value of goods and services in the first seven months of the year.

Figures from the GSO also showed that in the first eight months of 2014, total sales value reached VND1,900 trillion (US$90.5 billion), representing an 11.4 per cent year-on-year increase.

Retail sales accounted for more than 75 per cent of sales value at VND1,400 trillion ($68.14 billion), a 10.7 per cent year-on-year increase.

Revenue from hotels and restaurants made up 12 per cent of total sales value and increased by 11.8 per cent over that of the same period last year. Sales from other services made up 12 per cent of total value, representing a 15 per cent year-on-year increase.

Vu Manh Ha, a GSO economist, attributed the slight increase in sales to the surge in public demand during the seventh lunar month and just before the new school year, which begins in early September.

Sales of items on culture, education and worship increased by 45 per cent while those of school uniforms and bags increased by 21 per cent, food and foodstuffs by 13 per cent and other commodities by 21 per cent.

Ha said purchasing power in the first eight months had not yet exceeded the 7.2 per cent increase seen in the January 2014, before the lunar new year. He attributed this to the high demand for consumption goods. — VNS