Vietnam’s GDP growth in the second quarter of 2022 is estimated at 7.72% year-on-year, the highest since 2011, according to the General Statistics Office.

Production of aircraft components at MHI Aerospace Vietnam at Thang Long Industrial Park. Photo: Pham Hung

Such a rate put the country’s economic growth at over 6.4% in the first half of 2022, higher than the 2.04% rate in the same period of 2020 and 5.74% in the first six months of last year.

During the period, the majority of economic sectors have shown signs of recovery, in which the agro-forestry-fishery expanded by 2.78%; the industrial and construction sectors grew by 7.7%, and services by 6.6%.

Manufacturing and processing remained a growth-driving engine for the economy with an expansion rate of 9.7% year on year.

The high economic growth was also reflected in the positive performance of the index of industrial production (IIP) during the six months, in which garment production expanded by 23%, electronic equipment by 22%, and medicine and chemical products by 17.5%.

Meanwhile, trading activities were also seen as a highlight of the economy, with exports reaching nearly US$186 billion during the first half of the year, up 17.3% year-on-year, while imports climbed  15.5% to $185 billion.

Total revenue of retail sales and services in the second quarter took a positive turn with an expansion of nearly 20% year-on-year to VND1,400 trillion ($60.2 billion).

This accumulated a total of VND2,700 trillion ($116 billion) in the six months, up 12% year-on-year.

The tourism sector continued to benefit from Vietnam’s economic reopening with the number of international tourists in June standing at 236,700, up 37% against the previous month and a 33-fold increase compared to the same period of last year. As a result, a total of 602,000 foreign visitors came to Vietnam in the January-June period, a 7-fold inter-annual increase.

“The figure, however, remained low compared to the pre-pandemic period, or an equivalent of 7% of the six-month number in 2019,” it added.

The consumer price index (CPI) in June grew by 0.69% against last month and up 3.37% year-on-year. On average, the six-month CPI increased by 2.44% year-on-year, and core inflation rose by 1.25%.