According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam’s GDP in Q1 2010 increased by 5.83% compared to the same period last year. Industrial production value reached more than VND173,000bln, up 13.6% against the same period last year.

 

Noticeably, industrial production clearly showed its recovery with growth in March by 17.8% compared to February. Some localities with the large-scale industrial production, namely Vinh Phuc, Quang Ninh, Dong Nai, Thanh Hoa, HCM city, Binh Duong…gained high growth.

 

Vietnam’s export turnover in Q1 2010 reached more than US$14bln with some products having high growth, including electric wires and cables, chemicals, steel, electronic components, seafood, furniture items…

 

Agricultural production also went smoothly while service sector still continued to rise up. Tourism sector begun thriving again with 1.35 mln of international visitors, a year-on-year rise of over 36%. FDI attraction also gained over US$2.1bln. The amount of implemented FDI capital reached US$2.5bln, up 13.6%...

 

However, the national economy has still faced difficulties and challenges. Despite positive signs, export turnover in Q1 2010 saw decrease compared to the corresponding period of last year. Whilst, import value sharply increased by 37.6%. Trade deficit was estimated at US$3.5bln. According to economic experts, export and import activities have still faced many worrying problems, especially trade gap.

 

The most worrying problem is that inflation ratio has continued to sharply escalate. In Q1 2010, CPI rose by 4.12% amidst the fluctuation in the price. Many economic experts have worried that inflation ratio is likely to exceed 7% this year.

 

From now to the year’s end, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the country will focus on stabilizing macro economy, promoting investment project disbursement, encouraging export activities, decreasing trade gap and curb inflation to ensure a sustainable growth.

 

Reported by Dam Thanh-Translated by K.T