A look back at the year 2016 in economic data

Monday, 17:11, 02/01/2017

VOV.VN - It was a roller coaster year in economic data, with both good and bad surprises popping up regularly in many different series of economic data.

Economic growth at 6.2% was much slower than expected, inflation stayed slightly below the National Assembly’s target and the national debt rose tremendously.

So, with the year 2016 having just come to an end, let’s take a quick look back at some of the headline economic data of the year.

The country now has a record 600,000 local companies legally authorized to conduct operations.

For which the total capitalization is an all-time high.

Foreign reserves are also at an all-time high, having reached a record of US$41 billion by year’s end.

The country’s exports fell far short of expectations but managed to eke out a 6.6% rise, on the back of the foreign sector. The bad news is that domestic sector turned in a lacklustre performance.

Such weak domestic economic growth didn’t do much to help the labour market.

Private-sector credit has been estimated to have grown by 20% for 2016, signalling the potential for another bank bad debt crisis.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung says up to 97% of local companies are still small and not strong enough to lead the game in the domestic market.

Pledged investment with the Foreign Investment Agency has been tapering off towards the end of the year and now stands at US$15.18, billion, although this is somewhat a meaningless number.

The real measure of foreign investment is actual disbursements by transnational companies and that stood at a record level of US$15.8 billion as of the end of the year.