Minister-Chairman of the Government’s Office Mai Tien Dung speaks at a press conference following the Government's regular meeting (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam has recordedrobust socio-economic development in the first seven months of the year, withstable macro-economy, and good control over inflation, in the context of theescalating US-China trade war, said Minister-Chairman of the Government’sOffice Mai Tien Dung.
Speaking at a press conference after the government’s regular meeting on August1, Dung said the consumer price index (CPI)in July dropped by 0.09 percent from the previous month after increasing threeconsecutive months. The average CPIin the seven-month period went up 3.45 percent, which is lower than 3.91percent in the same time last year, he said.
The industry sector was the key driving force for the nation’s economic growth.The industrial production index in July shot up 14.3 percent as compared to thesame month in 2017, which was the highest expansion since February 2018.
Meanwhile, the agricultural sector attained impressive results, with aquatic outputsurging 5.7 percent.
The stock market made a remarkable recovery when the VN-Index on the Ho ChiMinh Stock Exchange reached 934.08 points on July 24, and the totalcapitalization value of the stock market rose 8.3 percent from the end of 2017.
During the January-July period, Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of 3.1 billionUSD, equivalent to 2.3 percent of the export revenue.
Regarding foreign direct investment (FDI), Dung laid stress on the sound growthof foreign capital flows. Foreign firms registered to invest nearly 23 billionUSD in Vietnam while FDI disbursement was estimated at more than 9.8 billionUSD, a year-on-year surge of 8.8 percent.
Positive signs were also seen in the private sector. Nearly 75,800 new enterpriseswere established nationwide in the first seven months of the year, with a totalregistered capital of 771 trillion VND (33.34 billion USD), a year-on-year riseof 3.9 percent in the number of firms, and a 11.6-percent rise in terms ofcapital.
Also, 18,696 companies resumed their operations, up 6.5 percent from the sametime last year.
International organisations recognised Vietnam’s economic reform efforts, andgave optimistic outlook for the nation’s economic growth. Of them, the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) forecast that the Vietnamese economy will expand 7.1percent while the Standard Chartered predicted Vietnam’s economic growth at 7percent and inflation rate at around 4 percent.
In the United Nations’ sustainable development goal (SDG) index, Vietnam movedup 11 steps to rank at 57th out of 156 countries and territories,and third in the ASEAN, just behind Singapore and Malaysia.
Regarding the Global Innovative Index 2018 (GII Index 2018), Vietnam was up twopositions to 45th place among 124 countries and territories, and 4th place in ASEAN after Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
The latest report from the World Bank (WB) indicated that Vietnam’s LogisticsPerformance Index moved 25 steps to 39th place among 160 surveyedcountries.
Dung also pointed out shortcomings in the socio-economic situation, includingcomplicated developments of weather, price hikes’ intense pressure on themacro-economy, barriers for local firms to expand their operation, and tardy equitisationof state-owned enterprises.
He said that at the Government’s regular meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen XuanPhuc ordered relevant sides to work out solutions to addressing such issues ina timely manner.-VNA
VNA
