First - quarter GDP growth estimated at 6.79 percent

At the press briefing.

The information was released at a regular press briefing held by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) in Hanoi on March 29.

The first quarter of 2019 saw the GDP value surge by an estimated 6.79 percent on year, much higher than the ratios seen in the same quarter of the 2011-17 period.

Agro-forestry-aquatic production in particular saw a growth rate of 2.68 percent, making a proportion of 4.9 percent of the GDP value. While growing by 8.63 percent, industrial production and construction accounted for 51.2 percent of the GDP value. Service sector witnessed a growth rate of 6.5 percent, representing 43.9 percent of the GDP.

Vietnam’s economic growth in the three-month period was mainly driven by processing and manufacturing sector with a growth level of 12.35 percent. By contrast, mining industry suffered a negative growth rate of 2.2 percent.

Nguyen Bich Lam, head of the GSO, said that despite adverse impacts and challenges of the global economic slowdown, the country’s economic development in the reviewed quarter still reaped positive results with macroeconomic stability and inflation kept under control.

These results were attributed to the drastic and synchronous measures taken by the Government, ministries, agencies, and localities right at the start of the year, Lam said.

He noted that local investment and business climate improved considerably in the first quarter of the year, with the number of newly-established businesses hitting the peak over the past five years.

The economy’s productive capacity was enhanced, which is expected to give an impetus to the country’s economic growth in the next quarter of the year, he added.