Vietnam economy contracts by 6.17% in Q3, deepest in history

This is the deepest decrease since Vietnam has calculated and announced quarterly GDP so far, according to the Office. The economy’s performance between July and September when lockdown was strict in Ho Chi Minh City and several province nationwide was worse than analysts’ anticipation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected all areas of the economy, many key economic localities had to implement prolonged social distancing to prevent the epidemic, explained Nguyen Thi Huong, Director General General Statistics Office.

According to detailed statistics, in the reported quarter, the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector increased by 1.04%. This is the only sector having a slight increase compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, GDP of two key drivers of the economy - industry and construction and the service sector dropped sharply in the quarter. Industry and construction decreased by 5.02%; service sector decreased by 9.28%.

Consumption in the third quarter of the whole economy decreased by 2.83% over the same period last year; accumulated assets increased by 1.61%; exports of goods and services increased by 2.51%; imports of goods and services increased by 10.75%.

According to the report, Vietnam’s 9-month GDP increased by 1.42% over the same period last year.

Industrial production in the third quarter faced many difficulties due to complicated developments of the pandemic, especially in localities with large industrial zones that had to implement prolonged social distancing, said Huong.

Generally, in the first 9 months of the year, the country had 85,500 newly registered enterprises with a total registered capital of nearly VND 1,200 trillion, down 13.6% in number of enterprises and 16.3% in capital. registration compared to the same period last year.