Vietnam PM raises growth target to 6.7%

HANOI: Vietnam’s leader yesterday raised the 2018 growth target for this year to at least 6.7% and said the Southeast Asian country must keep opening up for foreign and domestic investors.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also told a cabinet meeting that high inflation is threatening to return, according to a statement on the government’s website.

Phuc’s comments come shortly after Vietnam reported annual economic growth of 7.38% for January-March, the fastest firstquarter expansion in a decade.

In October, the government had set a 2018 growth target of 6.5-6.7%.

On Monday, Phuc said the government needs to work harder to ease business activities, including through reforms of tax, credit and land policies.

“We need to continue to further open the economy to foreign and domestic investment capital,” Phuc told the cabinet.

The prime minister urged the government to be vigilant of the return of high inflation, given the recent increase in the price of crude oil and scheduled hikes in the prices of state-run services this year.

At some points in the past decade, Vietnam’s inflation rate surged to around 20%, but the level has been much lower in recent years. On average, the consumer price index in the January-March quarter was 2.82% higher than one year earlier.

The Asian Development Bank said on Friday that Vietnam’s economy is expected to grow more than 7% this year, backed by robust exports, domestic consumption and strong foreign investment. – Bernama