Vietnam’s economy expands 7.02% in 2019, beating target

The Southeast Asian country reported GDP growth at 7.02% in 2019. This is the second consecutive year the economy reached a growth rate of over 7% since 2011. This is a bright result amid global economic downturn due to trade war.

In particular, the first quarter GDP increased by 6.82%, the second quarter at 6.73%, the third quarter at 7.48%, and the fourth quarter’s economic growth at 6.97%.

Earlier, the country’s legislators had placed economic growth target for 2019 at 6.6 – 6.8% while international organizations including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank estimated the country's economic growth at only at 6.7-6.8%.

This year’s achievement is lower than the 7.08% growth rate in 2018, but it is still higher than GDP growth between 2011-2017 period, statement said.

The agriculture-forestry-fishery sector increased by 2.01%, contributing 4.6% to the general increase; Industry and construction sector increased by 8.9%, contributing 50.4%; Services increased by 7.3%, contributing 45%.

“These results are remarkable in the context of a slowing global economy”, World Bank said in recent statement.

Vietnam's legislators place economic growth target for 2019 at 6.6 – 6.8%. Photo: Pixabay.com

Vietnam’s GDP growth has continued to be driven by a strong external sector with exports expanding by about 8 percent in 2019, almost 4 times faster than the world average.

Vietnam remained an attractive destination for foreign investors, with foreign direct investment inflows averaging $3 billion per month. Private firms also increased investment by 17 percent during the same period, said World Bank.

Amid trade war, international organizations highly evaluated Vietnam‘s economic prospect. U.S. News & World Report released the ranking of the best economies to invest in 2019, in which Vietnam surpassed its Southeast Asian peers including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore to rank eighth compared to 23rd last year.

The World Economic Forum reported Vietnam jumped 10 notches to 67th out of 141 economies on the global competitiveness ranking in  2019. With this jump, the country has leapt 17 spots since 2016. This year’s result is also the highest ranking the economy has ever achieved, said Vietnam Government News Portal.

Thailand has revised down its economic growth forecast for 2019, predicting that GDP will grow by 2.7% to 3.2% for the full year due to US – China trade war. It had previously forecast 3.3% to 3.8%, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

Thailand is not the only Southeast Asian country that has recently made a downward revision to its economic forecast. Singpore slashed its annual GDP growth forecast to between 0% and 1%, sharply lower than 1.5% to 2.5% previously.

The Philippines earlier this month maintained its 6% to 7% growth target, even though its second-quarter growth fell to 5.5%, the slowest pace in four years. Malaysia last week said it managed to record year-on-year growth of 4.9% in the April-June quarter, higher than 4.5% in the previous quarter, the news outlet said.