Industrial production index inched up 2.6 percent in the first seven months of 2020, the lowest level recorded in many years due to COVID-19, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The processing-manufacturing sector recorded a 4.2 percent growth; electricity production and distribution 2.1 percent; and water supply, waste and wastewater management and treatment 3.3 percent. Meanwhile, the mining industry contracted 7.8 percent.

Pham Dinh Thuy, Director of the GSO’s Industrial Statistics Department, said complex developments of COVID-19 worldwide disrupted the supply of input materials for industrial production.

Support services for mining and ore exploitation went deep down by 42.7 percent; motorised vehicle production 15.4 percent; and crude oil and natural gas extraction 11.3 percent.

However, some industries still recorded fair growth such as medicine, pharmaceutical chemical product, and herbal material manufacturing (27.1 percent), coke and refined petroleum product production (15.9 percent), and metal ore mining (15.7 percent).

Some key products that followed the downward trend were sugar (23.1 percent), automobiles (22.3 percent), beer (14.9 percent), and crude oil (14.1 percent).

By contrast, other key goods like oil and gas, television, and cellphone components still recorded growth between 10 and 19 percent.

In July alone, the industrial production index growth was 3.6 percent against June and 1.1 percent against the same month last year.

The GSO said the number of employees at industrial firms on July 1 went up 1.3 percent month on month and down 1.8 percent year on year.