Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is among the “brightest” spots in Asia despite the challenge of trying to contain the coronavirus pandemic and its economy is poised to rebound, said Edward Teather, a senior ASEAN economist from the Union Bank of Swizerland (UBS).
“Vietnam is suffering some pain from the impact of COVID-19, but the outlook is looking like one of the brightest in the region.”
“Retail sales, imports and industrial production were all actually up on-year in the month of June, which is better than you can say for most economies in the region,” he told CNBC.
Many economies contracted in the second quarter of 2020 compared to a year ago, but Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew slightly at an estimated 0.36 percent.
Lauding Vietnam’s success in containing COVID-19, Teather said Vietnam is growing and is well-positioned to continue to take global market share in terms of exports going forward, so pretty bright prospects in a relative sense in the region.
Overall FDI levels are likely to be hindered, in part because investors cannot travel freely, he predicted. However, there is “plenty of activity” in the pipeline, and those investments could pick up in 2021 as border restrictions are eased.
Government support may also boost Vietnam’s economy, he said. “The prime minister just over the weekend was calling for more measures to support the economy, and the central bank was actually saying they want to get credit growth up over 10 percent.”
According to Business Insider, there's growing evidence that economies which fought coronavirus aggressively at the start of the pandemic are bouncing back faster than those slow to act.
Germany and Vietnam, two nations that locked down swiftly early in the pandemic are already showing V-shaped recoveries, while nations that were slow to react - such as the US, India and Brazil - look much more like to see slow, L-shaped returns to normal.
Nikkei BP on July 9 also ran an article, saying Japan can learn from Vietnam’s experience in the fight against COVID-19.
According to the article, with a population of 96 million, the number of COVID-19 cases in Vietnam stands at only 369 and there have been no deaths.
Vietnam has attracted the due attention of the international community with policies on pandemic combat, it said./.
VNA
