Economy grows 6.5 percent in nine months

Official figures released on September 29 reflect a gross domestic (GDP) expansion of about 6.5 percent within the past nine months.

During the period, the industry and construction sector contributed most to the economy with an annual growth of 9.57 percent, followed by the service sector at 6.17 percent. The former made up 33.09 percent of the economic structure while the latter occupied 40.52 percent.

Agro-forestry-fisheries, which accounted for 16.3 percent of the economic breakdown, posted a negligible rise of 2.08 percent.

According to the General Statistics Office, the industry and construction soar was attributable to 9.69 percent and 9 percent increases obtained by industry and construction units, respectively, much higher points for both than have been recorded in recent years.

Most services, including wholesale/retail, banking, finance and insurance, climbed between 2 and 9 percent.

In contrary to the healthy growth of forestry and fisheries, agriculture inched 1.77 percent due largely to difficult weather and volatile material prices which led to a lower rice yield.-VNA