GDP growth tops 7 pct

The economic growth this year had slowed from a record 7.08 percent in 2018, but remained the second highest growth figure in the last decade.

The agriculture, forestry and fishery sector grew 2.01 percent, while the manufacturing sector rose 8.9 percent, and the services sector 7.3 percent, Nguyen Bich Lam, head of the General Department of Statistics (GSO), said Friday. 

The main GDP drivers continued to be processing and manufacturing, transport and logistics, wholesale and retail, and banking, finance and insurance, he added.

The structure of Vietnam’s GDP also "shifted positively", with the agriculure, forestry and fishery sector having fallen to 13.96 percent from 14.68 percent last year. The manufacturing sector made up 34.49 percent, the services sector, 41.64 percent, and the remaining 9.91 percent came from product taxes less subsidies.

Vietnam’s export and import turnover in 2019 reached $517 billion, the highest ever, with a trade surplus of $9.9 billion, the highest in the last four years of surpluses, GSO said.

According to Lam, the consumer price index (CPI) in December rose 1.4 percent compared to the previous month, the highest increase in the last nine years. This was because the price of foods and catering services rose 3.42 percent as a result of the African swine flu epidemic causing pork supply to fall and pushing up prices of pork-related products and substitutes.

On average, the CPI increased by 2.79 percent in 2019, well below the 4 percent target set by the National Assembly and also the lowest annual increase in the past three years.

The World Bank in December had forecasted that Vietnam’s GDP growth would reach 6.8 percent, the Asian Development Bank had set it at 6.9 percent, while the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales had made the most optimistic prediction of 7 percent.