Photo: VCG

HANOI, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's national index of industrial production rose 9.5 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of this year, the country's General Statistics Office said on Thursday.

Main driver of the surge, the processing and manufacturing sector, went up 10.6 percent, contributing 8.1 percentage points to the overall growth.

Electricity production and distribution sector grew 10.2 percent, contributing 0.9 percentage points, and water supply and waste management grew 7.4 percent, contributing 0.1 percentage points.

Between January and August, production of raw steel and iron witnessed the largest output expansion year-on-year, at 56.9 percent, followed by oil and petrol (up 42.9 percent), television set (up 23.1 percent), and liquefied petroleum gas (up 14.1 percent).

Industrial products with significant output reduction included Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium fertilizers (down 1.9 percent), crude oil (down 6.9 percent), motorbikes (down 8.3 percent), refined sugar (down 16.2 percent) and phones' components (down 16.3 percent).

As of Aug. 1, total number of labors employed in the industrial sector rose 1.5 percent year-on-year. Employment in the processing and manufacturing businesses and electricity production and distribution ones went up by 1.6 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, the office said.