GDP grows 5.03% in Q1

Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.03% in the first quarter of this year, higher than the 4.72% and 3.66% during the same period of 2021 and 2020, but much lower than the 6.85% in the first quarter of 2019, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

At a press briefing to announce the country’s socioeconomic performance in the first three months of the year, GSO officials said most economic sectors showed signs of recovery after the reopening of the country’s economy.

The agro-forestry-fishery sector gained year-on-year growth of 2.45% and contributed 5.76% to the economic growth. The industry-construction sector expanded 6.38%, while the service sector rose 4.58%, contributing 51.08% and 43.16% to GDP, respectively.

In the industry-construction sector, processing and manufacturing were a major growth driver, with a 7.79% year-on-year rise.

As the Covid-19 pandemic has been brought under control, services have resumed. The finance-banking-insurance grew 9.75%; transport, 7.06% and wholesale-retail, 2.98%.

The first quarter also witnessed the recovery of import-export activities, with total import-export revenue reaching US$176.35 billion, up 14.4% over the year-ago period.

The soaring prices of fuels, gas and essential consumer goods and services as well as house rentals sent the consumer price index (CPI) in March up 0.7% month-on-month and 2.41% over the same period last year.

The CPI in the first quarter inched up 1.92% year-on-year, while core inflation edged up 0.81%.

According to GSO, Vietnam will face a bumpy ride in the second quarter due to the complex geo-political situation, global economic slowdown and rising goods prices. Therefore, the nation’s 6.5% GDP growth target for this year might be hard to achieve.

In its latest report on Vietnam’s economy, HSBC has revised down the growth forecast for Vietnam this year to 6.2% from 6.5% after considering challenges to economic growth amid the rising global fuel prices.