Vietnam expects GDP growth rate at 7.1-7.3 percent in Q4

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s economy will continue the recovery trend with a GDP growth rate forecast at 7.1-7.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Accordingly, the economy is set to remain attractive to FDI and enjoy an increase in exports. A big portion of overseas remittances will be poured into economic activities while there will be a surge in the number of new businesses and their charter capital.

Those growth momentums will have positive impacts on the labour market, the GSO and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said in their latest report on the labour market announced on December 2.

The report expects the workforce in Q4 to expand slightly, 0.2 percent, from a year earlier, while the number of labourers with at least three-month training will rise by 4-5 percent. The unemployment rate among the working-age population is predicted at about 2.2 percent.

Looking back to Q3, the agencies noted improvements in the labour market such as an increase in the rate of trained labourers, a decline in the proportion of workers in the agro-forestry-fishery sector in the total workforce, and salary earners’ higher income.

However, economic growth did not generate many jobs and the unemployment rate still rose in the last three quarters, they added.

In Q3, 68.09 percent of the workforce worked in rural areas, dropping slightly from Q2 and a year earlier. The figure for the industry-construction sector climbed 0.4 percent and for the services sector, 0.1 percent, compared to the three-month period through June.

More than 1.1 million people of working age were idle in Q3, up 29,000 from the previous quarter but down 11,000 from the same period of 2015, data show.-VNA