Vietnam’s legislature approves 2017 GDP growth target
Vietnam’s legislature approves 2017 GDP growth target
Vietnam’s National Assembly has approved a GDP growth target of 6.7 percent after the legislative body adopted a resolution on economic development for 2017 on Monday.
The GDP growth target was approved by 85 percent of Vietnamese lawmakers, as they convened at a plenum held as part of the 14th parliament’s second session in Hanoi yesterday.
The resolution also includes goals of an export-import revenue increase of six to seven percent, and a four percent rise in the consumer price index in 2017.
As for social development plans, the National Assembly looks to have household poverty in Vietnam decline by 1-1.5 percent, and health insurance coverage rise to 82.2 percent next year.
The legislature is targeting economic growth of 6.7 percent in 2016, but some experts have said that target is unlikely to be met.
In the third quarter of 2016, Vietnam’s economy grew by 6.4 percent, the fastest since growth of 7.01 percent in the last quarter of 2015, according to the General Statistics Office.
Still, the Q3 GDP growth was modest compared to the 6.87 percent recorded in the same period last year, prompting Ha Quang Tuyen, head of the General Statistics Office's National Accounts Department, to forecast that 2016’s GDP growth target will be missed.
"GDP growth in 2016 will be lower than targeted but how much lower will depend mainly on the mining sector," he was quoted by Reuters as saying in late September.
"We hope there will be significant growth in the fourth quarter, equal to Q4 2015.”
Adverse weather, including drought in the coffee belt and salinization in the Mekong Delta, have put the brakes on Vietnam's rapid growth, biting into its industrial and agricultural production as well as its exports and imports, according to Reuters.
In 2015, Vietnam posted GDP growth of 6.68 percent.
