Weak consumption is one of the factors that have impacted enterprises’ investment and business expansion plans, thereby adversely affecting the economy. What can be done to address this challenge? Sluggish consumption hampers economic growth According to a report from the General Statistics Office (GSO), the total revenue from retail goods and services in the first half of 2023 was estimated at VND3,016,800 billion, a 10.9% increase compared to the same period last year. However, it is still lower than the year-on-year growth of 12.2% recorded in the first half of 2022. With inflation taken into account, the growth rate for the first half of 2023 stood at 8.4%, equivalent to the growth rate in the same period last year. Notably, in terms of GDP utilization, final consumption in the first half of this year only increased by 2.68% compared to the same period last year, contributing 30.27% to the overall growth. Meanwhile, asset accumulation saw a slight increase of 1.15% year-on-year, contributing 6.28% to the overall growth. On the other hand, despite a 10% decline in goods and services exports and a 13.2% drop in goods and services imports, the balance in imports and exports contributed as much as 63.45% […]