Industrial growth has been measured by the old system since 1994 using constant prices from that year as the basis for its calculations. This index has proven inaccurate, particularly considering the country’s shift to a globally integrated market economy.

Thuy said with the new system, the industrial development index should be lower than that calculated by the old one.

For example, based on the new system, industrial production results in the first quarter and the second half of the year could be increased 1.5 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively, over the same period last year. These increasing figures were higher according to the old method, falling by 2.5 per cent and 4.8 per cent, respectively.

The Government will continue to apply the old method, along with the IIP, until it is officially removed in 2011. The GSO completed the new IIP after receiving nearly five years of technical assistance from the Japan International Co-operation Agency and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.