Economists see Vietnam’s 2020 GDP to grow 3.8%

At a worse scenario, the country’s GDP could grow only 2.2 percent due to adverse developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Pham The Anh, chief economist at the institute.

In the second quarter, despite the global outbreak of COVID-19 seriously affected all of economies, Vietnam became one of the few countries reporting economic growth with 0.36%, while the average CPI decreased due to a sharp decline in domestic gasoline prices.

For the first six months of the year, GDP increased by 1.81 percent, according to data from statistic office.

VEPR experts said that Vietnam's economic prospects in 2020 depends on the ability to control the disease, not only domestically but also in the world.

Chief Economist of BIDV Can Van Luc, who has similar forecast with VEPR, said the country’s GDP growth this year could be about 3%. In the best scenario, Vietnam’s economy could grow 4%, according to the government news portal.

The weakness of Vietnam's economy came from internal risks such as large fiscal imbalance, the speed and level of development investment and infrastructure building slowdown.

Although the health of the banking and financial system had been gradually strengthened, it was still vulnerable, according to the experts. 

The economy was much dependent on growth of the FDI sector and the lack of technological and raw material autonomy.

► Oxford Economics forecast Vietnam’s GDP to grow 2.3 percent in 2020