Vietnam maintains momentum with record H1 growth

By Minh Nga   June 29, 2018 | 04:15 pm PT
Industry, construction and service sectors become major contributors to national economy.

Vietnam's economy has sustained and built on last year’s gains with an impressive 7.08 percent growth in the first half of 2018, the highest rate since 2011.

The General Statistics Office said growth rates in many sectors beat records that have stood for years.

It attributed the strong expansion of the economy to industry-construction and service sectors, which respectively contributed 48.9 percent and 41.4 percent to the overall growth rate.

The processing-manufacturing sector grew 13.02 percent, the highest since 2012.

The service sector expanded 6.9 percent in the first six months of the year, also the highest since 2012.

The agriculture-fisheries-forestry sector also grew at its highest rate since 2012 at 3.93 percent.

The World Bank had forecast in a report early this month that Vietnam’s economy could expand by 6.8 percent in 2018, revising upwards its previous estimate of 6.5 percent. It has estimated the nation’s GDP growth at 6.6 percent in 2019 and 6.5 percent in 2020.

The bank explained its upward revision for 2018 on better prospects for the expansion of agriculture and production for export, continued inflow of foreign direct investment thanks to bright economic prospects.

The Asian Development Bank said in April that it thinks Vietnam’s economy will expand by 7.1 percent this year, which would be the highest recorded by the country since 2008.

In the first quarter of this year, the economy expanded 7.38 percent, the highest in ten years.

Meanwhile in June, the consumer price index (CPI), which is used to measure changes in the price level of a basket of consumer goods and services purchased by families, rose to its highest in seven years.

The CPI this month rose by 0.61 percent against May.

 
 
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