Customers buy meat in a supermarket in District 9, HCMC.
Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. 

Although incomes have fallen because of the pandemic, a survey has found living standard improvements with Vietnamese people consuming less rice but more beer and meat. 

The GSO estimates per capita monthly income fell 2 percent from the previous year to VND4.2 million ($182), because of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the 2020 living standards survey conducted among 47,000 households nationwide by the General Statistic Office (GSO).

The survey found that per capita monthly rice consumption declined from 9.7 kilograms in 2010 to 7.6 kilograms last year.

On the other hand, per capita meat consumption rose from 1.8 kilograms per month in 2010 to 2.3 kilograms last year. Per capita beer and alcohol consumption reached 1.3 liters per month last year from 0.9 liters in 2018.

The GSO reported that there were significant wealth discrepancies between urban and rural areas. The per capita monthly income in urban areas last year was VND5.5 million, 1.6 times higher than that in rural areas.

A HCMC-based economist told VnExpress that farmers should reduce the rice farming and shift to produce with higher returns in order to increase per capita income in rural areas.

Vietnam targets an annual per capita income of $5,000 by 2025.