HCMC – HCMC’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in 2021 tumbled 6.78% year-on-year, the sharpest fall ever, according to the municipal Statistics Department.
A report delivered by the department at a press briefing held on December 29 to announce the city’s socioeconomic performance this year showed that the city’s GRDP in 2021 was some VND1.3 quadrillion. The contraction of 6.78% was much lower than the 5.06% decline estimated in September and the 1.39% growth last year.
HCMC has been facing the greatest impact of the fourth Covid-19 wave. In October, the city started reopening its economy, but the GRDP in the last quarter of the year was equal to 88.36% of the figure in the same period the previous year. In other words, the city’s economy in the last quarter shrank 11.64% year on year.
All the three main components of the city’s economy reported a fall. Specifically, the agro-forestry-fishery sector dropped 13.68%; the industry-construction sector, 12.96%; and the service sector, 5.5%.
Among the four key industries, the electronics sector reported the sharpest fall of 17.8%, followed by food and beverages by 14.2%, mechanical engineering by 9.2% and pharmaceutical-chemistry by 4.3%.
In addition, the index of industrial production fell 14.3%, while the retail sales of consumer goods and services plunged 21.9%, and the total investment in the city slid 22%. The HCMC Statistics Department attributed these poor results to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic since mid-2020, leading to the shortage of laborers, the input cost increase and changes in consumption habits.
The number of laborers at enterprises in December alone inched up 3.7% month-on-month but fell 9.9% over the same month last year. In the entire 2021, the number of laborers declined 19.9%.
In addition, the city’s consumer price index increased 2.36% over last year.
This year, the city had more than 30,800 newly-established enterprises with total registered capital of VND517.7 trillion, down 23.5% in the number of firms and 53.5% in registered capital.
Despite multiple difficulties, the city’s economy still had bright spots after deploying the Government’s Resolution 128 on safely and flexibly adapting to and effectively controlling Covid-19 for two months.
Specifically, the city’s budget revenue edged up 3% against last year to reach VND383.7 trillion, exceeding the target by 5.2%. Of the total, the revenue from domestic production and business activities was nearly VND253.3 trillion, inching down 0.9% and surpassing the estimated figure by 2%, while import-export activities contributed a revenue of 116.4 trillion, up 9.8% and exceeding the target by 7.8%.
The rise in the budget revenue was thanks to the good performance of real estate, finance and banking and securities enterprises and the effectiveness of policies to extend enterprises’ deadlines to pay taxes.
