GDP growth of 3.32% in Q1 nears lowest level in 13 years

The agro-forestry- fishery sector soared by 2.52%, thereby contributing 8.85% to overall growth, while the service sector expanded by 6.79% during the first quarter to contribute 95.91%.

In contrast, the industrial and construction sector experienced a downward trajectory of 0.4% during the reviewed period.

The GSO assessed that the increase in service sector clearly demonstrates a recovery thanks to the country’s effective policies aimed at stimulating domestic consumption demand, as well as promoting Vietnamese tourism to countries around the world..

However, the industry and construction sector, which is one of the main driving forces of the national economy, endured a decline amid numerous difficulties occurring in the world economy amid high input production costs coupled with a fall in the number of export orders.

The added value throughout the reviewed period decreased by 0.82% over the same period from last year. Nguyen Thi Huong, general director of the GSO, stressed that this is the deepest decline compared to the growth rates in the 2011 to 2023 period, reducing 0.28 percentage points as part of the entire economy’s total added value. 

Statistics revealed that the total retail sales of consumer goods and services stood at an estimated VND 1.5 million billion, up 13.9% against the same period from last year.

Furthermore, the number of international visitors to the nation also reached approximately 2.7 million arrivals, representing a 29.7-fold rise from the same period last year.

With regard to the import-export situation, export turnover of goods were estimated to at US$79.17 billion, a drop of 11.9% on-year while import turnover of goods stood at US$75.1 billion, down 14.7% on-year, with the country posting a trade surplus of US$4.07 billion.

In the first three months of the year, the United States continued to represent the country’s largest export market with an estimated turnover reaching US$20.6 billion, while China remained the nation’s largest importer with turnover of US$23.6 billion

As many as 57,000 businesses were newly established and returned to operation, down 5.4% over the same period last year, while the number of enterprises withdrawing from the market reached 60,200 firms, representing an increase of 17.4% on-year.

With regard to investment, the nation attracted nearly US$5.45 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first quarter of the year, down 38.8% against the same period from last year.

The GSO revealed that the consumer price index (CPI) in March dropped by 0.23% compared to the previous month, while CPI in the first quarter increased by 4.18% against the same period from last year, with core inflation rising by 5.01%.