Vietnam's Q2 economic growth remains strong
Vietnam's Q2 economic growth remains strong
Vietnam’s economic growth remained strong in the second quarter, backed by robust exports and foreign investment.
Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.71% in the second quarter this year, slowing down from a revised expansion of 6.82% in the first quarter, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said on Friday.
The processing and manufacturing industry grew 9.14% during April-June from a year earlier, while the services sector rose 6.85% and the agricultural sector grew 2.19%, the GSO said in a statement.
Exports in the first half of the year rose 7.3% from a year earlier to $122.72 billion, while foreign direct investment inflows into the country grew 8% to $9.1 billion in the period.
Vietnam’s exports to the United States rose 29% to $22.72 billion in the first five months of this year from a year earlier, according to Vietnamese government’s customs data.
The GSO said Vietnam’s economic growth, however, might be dragged down by a slowdown in public investment and an African swine fever outbreak that has hit farms in almost all of the country’s 63 provinces.
Vietnam targets economic growth of between 6.6% and 6.8% this year.
“We expect growth to remain strong, thanks in large part to a booming export sector,” Capital Economics said in a note on Friday, adding that it raised its forecast on Vietnam’s GDP growth for this year to 7.0% from 6.5%.
