Int’l economists optimistic of Vietnam’s GDP growth

• Vietnam’s nine-month GDP growth hits 9-year record high
• January-June GDP picks up 6.76 percent
• Industry 4.0 could boost Vietnam’s GDP by up to 16 percent

(Illustrative photo: VNA)

Citigroup Inc. revised its full-year forecast of Vietnam’s GDP to 6.9 percent from 6.7 percent, on the basis of another solid performance in the fourth quarter.

Analysts at Maybank Kim Eng Research Ltd. also lifted their forecast of Vietnam’s economic expansion to 7 percent from their previous prediction of 6.8 percent.

Meanwhile, United Overseas Bank Ltd. changed to 6.8 percent for the year from 6.7 percent, and Capital Economics Ltd. kept their projection of 7 percent, Bloomberg said.

Solid exports and manufacturing growth enabled the third-quarter gain of 7.31 percent.  The expansion was the highest since the start of last year, and reflects growing foreign investment into Vietnam.

According to two economists of Maybank – Linda Liu and Chua Hak Bin, rising foreign direct investment and “buoyant domestic demand, as suggested by the recent robust retail sales growth”, will keep the momentum going through the year-end and in early 2020.

Currently, many international financial institutions are issuing very positive assessments about the prospects of Vietnam's economy in the coming time.

HSBC predicts that inflation in Vietnam will be kept below 2.7 percent, while GDP growth is expected to ease to 6.7 percent in the whole year.

Edward Lee, chief economist for ASEAN and South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank Global Research, said he believes that Vietnam will be the fastest growing economy in ASEAN this year with a projected growth reaching 6.9 percent, and this is expected to continue until 2021.

According to the General Statistics Office, the country’s GDP in the first nine months of this year was estimated to increase by 6.98 percent – the highest in the same periods in the last nine years.