HANOI, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The number of business closures has exceeded the creation of businesses in Vietnam in the first quarter this year, government data showed on Friday.

The country's General Statistics Office (GSO) said 60,200 firms closed their doors in the first three months this year, while 57,000 companies were either created or resumed during the period, resulting in a net decline of 3,200 businesses.

Sluggish domestic consumption, weak competitiveness of local manufacturers, and limited access to bank loans due to high interest rates have been seen as the top three obstacles in the first quarter, followed by other factors including weakening global demand and difficult financial situation, said the GSO.

Vietnam posted a 2 percent fall in the number of new companies to around 34,000 in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the statistics authorities, with a registered capital down 34.1 percent to 310.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (about 13 billion U.S. dollars) year on year.

While the accommodation and food services sector grew the most by 19.2 percent year-on-year to 1,500 new companies, the real estate sector suffered the largest fall of 63.2 percent, followed by transport and warehousing down 16.5 percent and industrial manufacturing down 13.2 percent, showed the GSO data.

About 23,000 companies that had previously ceased operations resumed their activities in the January-March period, down 10 percent on the year.

In the same period, a total of 60,200 companies were reported to withdraw from the market, up 17.4 percent from a year earlier, the statistics showed.

About 44 percent of Vietnamese companies surveyed by the GSO said that business conditions and productivity would improve in the second quarter this year, 35 percent foresaw a stable condition and more than 20 percent believed difficulties would linger in the next three months.

Survey results also showed 80 percent of companies and manufacturers in the private sector and 78 percent of foreign-invested firms foresaw at least a moderate increase in productivity in the second quarter.

Vietnam's industrial output in the first quarter this year fell 2.25 percent from a year earlier, against a 6.4 percent year-on-year expansion in the same period last year as weak demand hit exports.

The number of newly registered firms in 2022 jumped 27.1 percent to around 148,500 from 2021.