Off the wire
• China Voice: Quality, efficient growth echoes call for well-off society  • African first ladies to meet in Kenya to raise cancer awareness  • Israeli president admits inaction to meet Ethiopian community demands  • Burundi gov't to hold meeting over election, urges halt in protests  • Egypt upholds death sentence for MB members in killing police  • Feature: Chinese youths lend skills to fast-track development of Kenya's Railway project  • 30 miners trapped for 5 days in Burkina Faso mine  • China helps Nepal with disease prevention  • Laos sees 640 mln trade deficit in six months  • London to stage victory light show to mark end of World War Two  
You are here: 　 Home

Vietnam sees sharpest rise in manufacturing output in four years: HSBC

Xinhua, May 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Vietnam witnessed sharp growth in production, record rise in new business and further fall in input costs in April, according to an HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) press release on Monday.

The PMI rose to 53.5 in April from 50.7 in the previous month, signaling a solid strengthening of operating conditions. The improvement was the strongest since the series began in April 2011.

Driving the overall improvement in business conditions was a sharp increase in new businesses as a number of firms reported having secured new customers. This was also the case with regards to new business from abroad, where growth was solid.

Higher new orders led to a 19th successive monthly increase in manufacturing production, with the rate of expansion quickening to the fastest since April 2011. Growth of output resulted in a further reduction in backlogs of work as firms reported efforts to complete orders quickly.

As has been the case in each month since last November, input costs decreased. Vietnam has seen lower costs of materials including oil, iron and steel. Decreasing input prices was the main factor behind a further reduction in charges at Vietnamese manufacturing firms.

Commenting on the Vietnam Manufacturing PMI survey, Andrew Harker, senior economist at Markit, a leading global diversified provider of financial information services, said: "Growth of the Vietnamese manufacturing sector stepped up a gear in April, with the latest set of numbers the most impressive in the four-year survey history. Central to the improvement was success for firms in securing new clients, helped by a continued lack of inflationary pressure."

The HSBC Vietnam Manufacturing PMI is based on data compiled from monthly replies to questionnaires sent to purchasing executives in around 400 manufacturing companies on five of individual indices of new orders, output, employment, suppliers' delivery time and stock of items purchased. Endi