Applications to start new businesses in Vietnam rose 12.3 percent in April from March, suggesting economic activity may be picking up again, although global outlook uncertainties continue to pose a risk to growth, Vietnam News Agency reported on Thursday.

Total business applications inched up 0.6 percent from a year earlier to nearly 50,000 in the first four months after a year-on-year fall of 2 percent in the first quarter, said the General Statistics Office (GSO).

However, the data showed the registered capital by new firms slumped 26.8 percent to 465 trillion Vietnamese dong (about 19.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-April period, indicating that businesses have refrained from boosting investments amid a slowing economy and sluggish market.

Last month, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry found that business growth, in terms of profitability and scalability, had dropped to the lowest level since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the country recovered from restrictions on travel and disruptions to trade from the pandemic, the services sector grew the most by 3.7 percent year-on-year to 37,400 new companies in the first four months, the data showed.

Meanwhile, the sector of agriculture, seafood and forestry suffered the largest fall of 29.5 percent in the period to 501 firms, followed by the manufacturing and construction sector down 6.5 percent to 11,900 businesses, said the GSO.

About 29,000 companies that had previously ceased operations resumed their activities in January-April, down 6.2 percent on the year.

In the period, 78,900 companies were either created or resumed, down 2 percent from a year earlier, while a total of 77,000 companies were reported to withdraw from the market, including those shut down temporarily and those closed their doors for good, up 25.1 percent from the previous year, official statistics showed.