Vietnam’s per capita income falls 2% in 2020 on pandemic

A survey on living standards in 2020 conducted by GSO on 47,000 households across 63 cities and provinces shows that the average monthly per capita income grew by 8.1 percent annually during the 2016-2020 period.

The monthly per capita income in urban areas was around VND5.53 million, about 1.6 times higher than that in rural areas (VND3.48 million).

The richest group had an average per capita income of VND9.1 million per month, compared to only nearly VND1.14 million in the poorest group.

In terms of regions, the southeast region had the highest monthly per capita income, at over VND6 million, 2.2 times higher than that of the northern midland and mountainous region which had the lowest monthly per capita income at VND2.74 million.

The southern province of Binh Duong with strong industrial base surpassed both Hanoi and HCM City to top the nation’s per capita monthly income in 2020. The province’s per capita income was more than VND7 million ($303.93) per month, followed by HCM City at VND6.537 million, and Hanoi at VND5.98 million.

Of the total income, earnings from wage and salary accounted for 55.3 percent, from agro-forestry-fishery activities 11.2 percent, non- agro-forestry-fishery activities 22.9 percent, and other activities 10.6 percent.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of poor families has continued to decrease thanks to social welfare policies, the GSO says. Policymakers, however, need to address the wealth gaps between urban and rural areas, the rich and poor as well as between regions.

Vietnam was one of a handful of countries with a competent handling of the pandemic, keeping both infections and deaths low throughout 2020, while managing to post a positive growth of 2.9 percent.

Source: Viet Nam News