RHB Investment Bank maintained an optimistic view on the sector’s prospects, forecasting IPI growth of 4.1% in 2026. Despite concerns over a global economic slowdown, higher tariffs and geopolitical volatility, industrial activity is expected to remain on a growth trajectory. For the whole of 2025, Malaysia’s IPI expanded by 3.6%, nearly matching the 3.7% increase recorded in 2024.
Andrew Harker, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said: "The Vietnamese manufacturing sector ended a turbulent year on a positive note, with output and new orders rising solidly again and business confidence hitting a 21-month high."
The strong performance was driven by stronger manufacturing shipments and sustained demand for electrical and electronic (E&E) products, according to the Malaysian Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry.
New orders increased for the second consecutive month, and at a much faster pace than in September. The rate of expansion was the quickest since July 2024, reflecting improved customer demand.
Among the seven countries surveyed by S&P Global in July, Vietnam led with a PMI of 52.4, well above the ASEAN average of 50.1. New export orders rose for the fourth straight month, reaching their fastest growth rate since November 2024.
As traditional growth engines—natural resources, public investment, low-cost labour, and low-value exports—wane, Vietnam must shift toward transformative drivers, some experts have said.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the real estate sector for 2024 reached 3.72 billion USD, making up 18.8% of the total FDI that Vietnam attracted in the year, second only to the manufacturing sector, reported the General Statistics Office (GSO).
Given the 10-month performance, authorities believed Vietnam's economic growth is likely to surpass this year’s target, and more efforts are being taken to tackle bottlenecks to growth.
The Vietnamese manufacturing sector in October started to recover from the effects of September's Typhoon Yagi, recording renewed increases in both output and new orders, according to S&P Global.
Despite a modest influx of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the real estate sector since early 2024, Savills Vietnam sees a silver lining in the surge of FDI into high-tech manufacturing.
Vietnam’s export activity saw robust growth in the first nine months of 2024, largely due to a global market recovery and rising export orders. This was particularly evident in the processing and manufacturing sector, which encompassed nearly 85% of total export revenue.
The Bank of Thailand recently backed government initiatives to address the issue of cheap Chinese products flooding the Thai market.
Singapore on August 13 upgraded its economic growth forecast for this year after beating expectations in the second quarter and on optimism that the manufacturing sector will gradually recover.
The strong growth in the Vietnamese manufacturing sector seen in June was sustained in July.
HSBC has revised its forecast for Vietnam’s gross domestic product growth for this year to 6.5%, up from the previous projection of 6%.
Vietnam’s manufacturing sector expanded sharply at the end of the second quarter with new orders rising at one of the fastest rates on record, prompting firms to ramp up production and purchasing activity, according to S&P Global.
