News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 05 Feb 2008

Vietnam economy in New-year forecasts

VietNamNet Bridge - During a recent meeting of the Government to review the socio-economic situation for January, cabinet members were unanimous that January's economic growth rate remained high, while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) soared.

According to a survey of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, small and medium-sized enterprises in Asia were continuously optimistic about the prospects of economic growth and commercial operations of the Asian continent in 2008.

In particular, Vietnamese and Indian firms seemed to be most optimistic about a series of key indexes. They reported that they will boost capital in the first half of 2008, and hire more employees. The companies were also optimistic about the prospects of enhancing trade with China as well as other countries in Asia and the wider world.

The Institute of Developing Economies (IDE) under The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) forecast that Viet Nam's economic growth rate in 2008 would reach 8.7%, which is higher than the figure previously forecast by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

IDE has stated that as 2008 is the second year Viet Nam has been a member of the WTO, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) would continue to flow into Viet Nam, while domestic investment would also increase, thus boosting economic growth vigorously.

IDE forecast that growth rates for industry, service and export turnover would reach 10.8%, 8.8% and 12% respectively.

The institute also said Viet Nam's inflation would ease from 12.6% in 2007 to 8.1% in 2008. This would be mainly attributed by the stabilization of prices of agricultural products in Viet Nam.