The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to reach 6.5-6.8 percent this year, meeting the National Assembly-set target, said the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) at a monthly government meeting that took place in Hanoi on July 1-2.

The forecast is based on achievements the country made in this year’s first half and prospects of the world economy in the coming time, the MPI said, predicting the country’s GDP will be from 6.6-7 percent in the third quarter and from 7.1-7.5 percent in the fourth quarter.

Besides GDP, other key economic figures for the whole year are also revealed at the meeting. The state budget overspending is predicted at about 6 percent of the GDP, 0.2 percent lower than previously-set target while the total investment capital for social development this year is forecast at 41.5-42 percent of the GDP.

The country will gross some 66 billion USD from exports this year, 15.6 percent higher than last year. However, the country’s import surplus is still predicted to hit 15 billion USD, accounting for 22.7 percent of the total export turnover.

With strong efforts made by the whole nation, the inflation will be curbed at some 8 percent this year, affirmed the Ministry.

At the meeting, government members agreed that the country’s economy continued its fast recovery in the first six months of this year and is showing signs of positive growth.

According to a report prepared by the MPI, the country’s economy grew by 6.16 percent in this year’s first half and all economic sectors recorded higher growth than the same period last year.

Among economic sectors, the service sector posted the highest growth of 7.05 percent, followed by the industry and construction with 6.5 percent and the agro-forestry and fisheries sector with 3.31 percent.

Another positive signal is that the country’s total export value in the year’s first half made a sharp rise of 15.7 percent in comparison with the same period last year, peaking at 32.1 billion USD.

However, government members reckoned that the country still faces numerous difficulties, citing a high import surplus, rising material prices on the world market, high interest rates, electricity shortage, drought, flood and epidemics among others.

To overcome those challenges, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung urged ministries, branches and local authorities to create favourable conditions for both foreign-invested and domestic businesses, helping them expand their business and production.

It is a must to actively prevent and control natural disasters, forest fire and epidemics, the PM told cabinet members while instructed the power sector to operate the country’s power plants at full capacity and put new plants into operation soon.

In addition, the PM ordered government’s agencies to speed up the disbursement pace, raise effectiveness of the state investment and pump capital for urgent and major constructions.

Regarding to inflation, Dung said that the government would go on with drastic measures to prevent prices from rising, especially prices of essential goods for production and people’s life.

Also at this meeting, the government discussed a draft law on petition, an amended draft law on insurance business, a project to assess state-owned enterprises’ assets and other several important issues./.