Vietnam’s economy accelerates in nine months (Illustrative image. Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s economy witnessed positivechanges in the first nine months of 2017 with growth increasing from quarter toquarter, according to Director General of the General Statistics Office (GSO)Nguyen Bich Lam.
Gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter expanded by5.15 percent, the second quarter 6.28 percent, and the third quarter 7.46percent – the highest level since 2011, Lam said.
Contributing to the country’s overall economic growth of 6.41percent in January-September was the processing and manufacturing industry –which posted a growth rate of 12.8 percent, the services sector 7.25 percent,and the agricultural sector 2.78 percent.
International tourists arrivals in Vietnam in the nine monthsremained high with more than 9.4 million arrivals, a year-on-year rise of 28.4percent. The tourism sector hopes to welcome 13 million foreign visitors in2017.
January-September growth was also buoyed by exports, whichclimbed 19.8 percent compared to the same period last year (6.7 percent) to anestimated 154 billion USD, exceeding the year’s target of seven percent.
In the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018 by the WorldEconomic Forum, Vietnam jumped to 55th place, up five spots from last year and20 from five years ago.
Vietnam also leapt nine notches to 82nd out of the 190economies in the “Doing Business 2016: Equal Opportunity for All” report by theWorld Bank, maintaining fifth position in ASEAN.
In the first nine months of 2017, Vietnam attracted 25.5billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI), a year-on-year rise of 34.3percent, while 12.5 billion USD of FDI was disbursed, up 13.4 percentyear-on-year.
As many as 93,967 new enterprises were established with a totalregistered capital of 902.7 trillion VND (about 39.7 billion USD), up 15.4percent in number and 43.5 percent in capital.
Inflation was held below four percent, while core inflationaveraged 1.45 percent up to September and is forecast to approximate 1.5-1.8percent this year, below the target assigned by the National Assembly.-VNA
