Vietnam's national index of industrial production in January decreased 5.5 percent on-year, according to the country's General Statistics Office on Tuesday.

Drivers of the decrease include the mining and quarrying sector which went down 12.9 percent, manufacturing sector down 4.8 percent, production and distribution of electricity down 3.5 percent. Only water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities went up 1.6 percent on-year.

In January, production of motor vehicles witnessed the largest decrease on-year at 25.2 percent, followed by coal and lignite (18.4 percent), drainage and sewage treatment (17 percent), textiles (13.3 percent) and electrical equipment (11.1 percent).

Industrial products with significant output reductions last month include cars (38 percent), sugar (30.4 percent), motorbikes (22 percent), liquefies petroleum gas (21.2 percent), television set (14 percent) and animal feed (12.5 percent).

As of January 1, the total number of employees in the industrial sector rose 2.1 percent on-year. Employment in the processing and manufacturing businesses and electricity production and distribution ones went up 2.3 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, said the office.

Source: Xinhua