According to the WB in its Viet Nam Macro Monitoring report for May, Viet Nam has been hit hard by the current COVID-19 pandemic, but it will show signs of recovery in the post-coronavirus period.
After showing some resilience with a GDP growth rate estimated at 3.8% in the first quarter of 2020, the economy was hit by restrictive measures introduced in April to keep the coronavirus disease in check.
The index of industrial production (IPP) in April fell 13.3% compared to March or 10.5% year-on-year, which is the biggest decline ever recorded.
But there are some positive signals about Vietnam economy. According to WB, the merchandise exports of Vietnam will continue to grow in the first several months of 2020 but with slower pace due to the decline in external demand and the disruption of global supply chains.
The value of merchandise exports is estimated to have increased 4.7% year on year in the January-April period compared to the 6.5% growth in the same period of 2019. The export value of the foreign-invested sector – the engine of Viet Nam’s exports, grew by only 1.5% compared to 4.4% in the same period last year.
In the first four months of 2020, committed foreign direct investment (FDI) amounted to US$12.3 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 15.5%. Surprisingly, the value of FDI commitment rebounded in April, up by 81% over March 2020 and 62% over April 2019./.
