Vietnam’s GDP grew by 5.0 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, comparable to the growth rate in Q4-2021, yet still two percentage points below pre-pandemic rates.
Industry and construction and services sectors grew 6.4 percent year-on-year and 4.6 percent year-on-year, respectively, contributing 4.3 percentage points to quarterly GDP growth.
Growth of industry and construction was driven by strong external demand for manufactured products, while services sector performance varied across sub-sector.
The Consumer Price Index increased by 2.4 percent in March, compared to 1.4 percent in February. This is the highest inflation rate in seven months but remains well below the 4.0 percent target.
The World Bank said the authorities should consider structural reforms to help the economy become more productive and increase aggregate supply. These would include tax breaks for productive and innovative investments, reducing barriers to doing business and logistics costs and investing in the education and technical training of the work force/.
