Hanoi: In the second quarter of the year, Vietnam’s economic growth accelerated as robust exports and industrial production offseted the impact of the country’s most serious Covid-19 outbreak to date.
According to the government’s General Statistics Office (GSO), the country’s GDP grew 6.61% in the second quarter from a year earlier, faster than the 4.65% increase reported in the first quarter. ‘Global trade continued to recover,’ the GSO said in a statement.
‘Domestically, macroeconomic stability has been maintained, while production and trade have seen decent results,’ it said.
Vietnam’s exports in the first half of this year increased 28.4% from a year earlier, reaching $157.63 billion, and its industrial production increased by 9.3%, according to GSO data. However, the GSO stated that an ongoing Covid-19 outbreak is hindering the Southeast Asian nation’s economic recovery.
After successfully containing the virus for most of last year, Vietnam is grappling with an increase in infections since late April that accounts for more than three-quarters of the total 16,136 cases. There have been 76 deaths so far.
The outbreak is ‘evolving in a complicated manner, challenging the management and administration to develop the economy and ensure social security,’ the GSO said.
As a result of the new outbreak, global firms like Samsung Electronics and Foxconn halted production temporarily in Vietnam’s northern region last month, and the disease is now spreading slowly to Ho Chi Minh City and its neighboring provinces.
The GSO said that the industrial and construction sector grew 10.28% from April to June last year. The services sector developed 4.30%, while the agricultural sector grew by 4.11%.
Consumer prices in Vietnam rose 2.41% from a year ago and 1.62% from December, according to the GSO.
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