HANOI: Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to grow 6.3 percent in 2017, compared with the target of 6.7 percent set by the country’s top legislature and government, and to grow 6.5 percent in 2018, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) representatives said here Tuesday.
The lower-than-expected growth rate mainly has come from the fact that Vietnam saw an 8 percent decline in its mineral and crude oil outputs in the first half of this year. Despite the smaller mineral and crude oil outputs, Vietnam’s economy continued to gain encouraging results, motivated by export-oriented production and stronger domestic consumption, Eric Sidgwick, ADB country director for Vietnam, said at a press briefing to launch its Asian Development Outlook 2017 Update: Sustaining Development through Public-Private Partnership. Vietnam is likely to post economic growth of 7.12 percent in the third quarter of this year, according to Aaron Batten, country economist at the ADB’s Vietnam resident mission. The economy is expected to grow considerably in the second half of this year, mainly due to bigger foreign direct investment and export, strong domestic credit growth, drastic recovery of agriculture after the severe drought last year, and speedier disbursement of state monies for national infrastructure projects.
Vietnam’s GDP is most likely to expand some 6.5 percent this year, lower than its target of 6.7 percent, said the National Center for Socio-Economic Information and Forecast under the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment. The Vietnamese economy grew 5.7 percent in the first half of this year, according to the ministry. The growth rates were 6.21 percent in 2016, and 6.68 percent in 2015.
