GDP growth pegged at 5% this year: PM

The government is making many efforts to ensure GDP exceeds 5% this year, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh told the National Assembly Monday morning.

Vietnam’s GDP growth surpassed 8% last year thanks to a low base in the Covid years, but maintaining such a high growth rate has proven to be difficult due to challenges in the property sector and declines in exports.

Growth reached 5.33% in the third quarter and 4.24% in the first nine months.

Chairman of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly, Vu Hong Thanh, said five economic targets are likely to be missed, including GDP growth and productivity growth. Vietnam set the GDP target of 6.5% this year.

About 15,000 businesses had shut down in the first nine months of the year, he said.

"Businesses face difficulties in sales due to a lack of orders while many blue-collar workers lose their jobs. Manufacturing and logistics costs were high," Thanh said.

But there are positive figures. Inflation in the first nine months was 3.16% against the year’s target of 4.5%, PM Chinh said.

The country recorded a trade surplus of nearly $22 billion.

Public investment disbursement ratio rose 4.7 percentage points to 51.38%, equivalent to VND110 trillion being spent.

Disbursed foreign direct investment capital rose 2.2% to $16 billion.

Public debt and government debt were all contained within the targets of the National Assembly.

Next year the government targets to achieve GDP growth of 6-6.5% and inflation of 4-4.5%.

It also wants credit growth to reach 15%, and 95% of public disbursement funds being spent.

PM Chinh promised that there would be no electricity shortage next year.

He also ordered banks to lower loan interest rates and reduce bad debts.

The government will also speed up construction progress to have more than 3,000 kilometers of expressway by 2025.