The Vietnam Beer, Alcohol and Beverage Association (VBA) has estimated that Vietnamese people drank 3 billion litres of beer so far this year in spite of economic difficulties.

The VBA said that beer consumption is expected to sharply rise during Tet Holiday, so beverage companies are increasing production.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said the value of industrial production in the first 11 months of the year was estimated to have grown by 5.6% compared to the same period of last year.

According to the VBA, just between January and November, 2.67 billion litres of beer were produced out of the year target of 2.9 billion litres. Hanoi Beer Alcohol and Beverage Company accounted for 490.9 million litres and the Saigon Beer Alcohol and Beverage Company produced 1.19 billion litres.

The association said the total output in December would be 270,000-280,000 litres.

In May this year, market survey company, Eurowatch, announced statistics, saying that Vietnamese people also consumed 3 billion litres of beer in 2012. On average, each Vietnamese person drank about 32 litres of beer, making the country the third largest per capita consumer in Asia, just behind China and Japan.