People shop at a supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City.

Ho Chi Minh City’s total retail sales of goods and revenues from services exceeded 89.09 trillion VND (3.9 billion USD) in February, up 0.4 percent against the previous month and 0.9 percent from the same period last year.

However, the total sales declined 6.6 percent year-on-year in the first two months of this year to over 177.8 trillion VND, largely due to rising fuel prices. The fuel prices hit a record high after being revised up for six consecutive times, having major impacts on people’s consumption.

Retail sales of goods stood at nearly 53.08 trillion VND last month, accounting for 59.6 percent of the total. The figure was down 3.1 percent month-on-month, with revenue of most of the commodity groups decreasing compared to the previous month, or before the Tet (Lunar New Year), the country’s biggest holiday of the year.

Growth was only seen in the sales of cultural and educational items and precious stones and metals.

The sales of cultural and educational items picked up 8.3 percent as students returned to school after months of online learning to curb the COVID-19 spread. Those of precious stones and metals rose by 4.8 percent as a result of rising global gold prices and high demand on the God of Wealth Day earlier last month./.