This is the fifth deterioration in business conditions over the past six months, marking the sharpest decline in the year-to-date as demand remains subdued.

The S&P Global shows that manufacturing production decreased at a solid pace for the second month running, as companies reported that securing new orders had been challenging during the month amid demand weakness. Firms also continued to lower their staffing levels, both through the non-replacement of leavers and job cuts in response to the drop in workload.

Furthermore, the rate of input cost inflation slowed for the second consecutive month in April, easing to a slight pace that was the weakest throughout the current 35-month sequence of inflation amid some reports of lower raw material prices, according to S&P Global.

Andrew Harker, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said that Vietnamese companies had faced difficulties in finding new orders over recent months, although they are optimistic that the situation can change moving forward.

Source: VOV