The figure was released at the fifth meeting of the Hanoi municipal People’s Council on July 10.
Deputy Chairman of the Hanoi municipal People’s Committee, Nguyen Van Suu, said that the city’s Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) in the fist six months of this year rose by 7.6 percent, which is lower than the yearly set target.
However, he said, the economy has shown positive signs of recovery with GDP growth in the second quarter reaching 7.9 percent, higher than the first quarter’s figure of 7.3 percent.
According to Suu, local businesses are facing numerous difficulties due to high interest rates, increasing input costs, weak purchasing power and rising inventories.
He raised concerns about the frozen real estate market. In addition, the consumer price index (CPI) still remains high, while banks’ bad debt ratio is tending to rise.
The number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in the first half of this year also saw a decline compared to the same period last year, Suu added.
Issues related to land use, transport projects, irrigation networks, culture and tourism plans, and information technology applications were also discussed at the meeting.