Vendors and buyers are required to practice social distancing at a traditional market in HCMC. The city’s total retail sales of goods and services fell sharply last month - PHOTO: LE VU

HCMC - HCMC’s total retail sales of goods and services in July were estimated at VND51,576 billion, dropping 27.7% from June and 42.2% compared with the same period last year.

The retail sales of goods alone were VND35,780 billion, falling 20.1% month-on-month and 25.1% year-on-year.

Revenue from catering and accommodation services reached VND1,156 billion, falling 52.9% month-on-month and 84.1% year-on-year.

Of the figure, revenue from accommodation services dropped 26.8% month-on-month and 73.7% year-on-year to VND123 billion.

Meanwhile, revenue from catering services dropped 54.8% month-on-month and 84.8% year-on-year to VND1,033 billion.

The city earned hardly anything from travel services as the tourism industry has been shut down due to the raging Covid-19 pandemic.

Revenues from other services were estimated at VND14,640 billion, declining 39.4% from the previous month and 56.5% compared with the same period last year.

Of them, revenues from real estate services reached VND9,831, falling 40.3% month-on-month and 53.2% year-on-year.

The city’s total retail sales of goods and services from January to July were estimated at VND583,192 billion, falling 1.8% compared with the same period last year.

Of the figure, the retail sales of goods reached VND335,788 billion, accounting for 57.6% of the total and increasing 2.2% year-on-year.

Specifically, the sales of food and foodstuffs rose 5.9% year-on-year and accounted for 17.6% of the total retail sales of goods.

The sales of household appliances, tools and equipment fell 0.6% and accounted for 14.7% of the total, while that of oil and gas rose 8.2% and accounted for 9.4%.

Data of the General Statistics Office showed that the country’s total retail sales of goods and services from January to July amounted to nearly 2.8 quadrillion, increasing 0.7% compared with the same period last year.

Excluding inflation, the total retail sales of goods and services in the seven-month period fell 0.74% year-on-year.

In July alone, the total retail sales of goods and services of the country reached VND339,000, falling 8.3% from June and 19.8% from the same period a year ago.