Vietnam’s economic growth accelerated in the fourth quarter as manufacturing revived and exports extended their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic slump earlier this year.
GDP rose 5.22 percent in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier, up from a revised minus-6.02 percent in the third quarter, the Vietnamese General Statistics Office said yesterday in Hanoi.
That compared with the median estimate of 3.7 percent for the fourth quarter in a Bloomberg survey of 21 economists.
The economy expanded 2.58 percent for the full year, compared with the median estimate of 2.2 percent in the Bloomberg survey and just above the government’s forecast of 2.5 percent.
The Asian Development Bank earlier this month revised its growth forecast for Vietnam to 2 percent this year, down from 3.8 percent previously.
The nation’s economic growth is a great result “given that the pandemic had seriously affected all sectors of our economy,” General Statistics Office Director-General Nguyen Thi Huong said at a briefing in Hanoi.
The economy is expected to accelerate its recovery from the pandemic next year, with momentum coming from the travel and tourist industries, increasing domestic consumption and government stimulus measures, said Le Trung Hieu, head of the GDP department of the statistics office.
Other details from the statistics office include: Exports rose 24.8 percent this month from a year earlier, while imports climbed 14.6 percent.
For the full year, exports increased 19 percent and imports gained 26.5 percent; the trade surplus this month was at US$2.5 billion and full-year trade surplus reached US$4 billion.
Manufacturing rose 10.9 percent and consumer prices rose 1.81 percent this month from a year earlier. Pledged foreign direct investment (FDI) for this year was up 9.2 percent year-on-year, while disbursed FDI dropped 1.2 percent.
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