Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 5.57 percent in the first six months, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said at a press conference in Hanoi on June 29.

With the first half figure, GSO also forecast the country’s GDP growth of over 6 percent for the whole year.

In the period, export turnover reached 42.3 billion USD, representing a year-on-year rise of 30.3 percent. The result was attributable to increases in export prices and volumes of several farm items, and petroleum products.

Almost all export staples enjoyed high value growth, ranging between 17.7 percent and 28.4 percent, with garments marking the highest rate of 28.4 percent to 6.1 billion USD.

This signaled a trend to which high added value products have gradually outpaced raw resources in exports.

In the first half, only 2.4 percent of people of working ages were unemployed, which was significantly lower than the 4.1 percent level reported in the same period last year.

State budget overspending was 30 trillion VND, accounting for 2.8 percent of GDP and lower than that of the corresponding period last year. This may help the country keep its budget overspending at 5 percent this year.

Despite those bright signs, in the first half, registered foreign direct investment (FDI), including the sum from newly licensed projects and additional capital of existing invested projects, dropped by nearly 40 percent from the same period last year.

Capital of newly-established private businesses also fell by 5.4 percent.

Consumer price index (CPI) in the first half rose 13.29 percent against December, 2010 and 16.03 percent compared to the same period last year./.