HANOI, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's retail sales of goods and services in the first quarter rose 13.9 percent from a year earlier to over 1,505 trillion Vietnamese dong (64 billion U.S. dollars), according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The statistics office said total sales at retailers and service revenues in the first three months were higher than an annual expansion of 12.6 percent in the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.
Inflation cooled a bit in March due mainly to lower fuel prices and drops in food costs, however, average consumer prices in the first quarter continued their rising trend, up 4.18 percent from a year earlier.
Domestic consumption is expected to recover further in 2023, partly driven by growth in household income following a pay raise for millions of state employees to be rolled out in July, deputy head of the GSO Le Trung Hieu told local media.
Vietnam's economy in the first quarter expanded by 3.32 percent year-on-year thanks mainly to an increase of 6.79 percent in the services sector.
Last year, Vietnam's total goods retail sales and consumer service revenues jumped 19.8 percent year-on-year to approximately 241 billion U.S. dollars.
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