Vietnam’s economy shows signs of recovery and growth (Photo: Finance Magazine)

Economists say global inflation is easing but remains high, geopolitical conflicts continue, and tight monetary policies in several major countries are not seeing much improvement. These factors have a strong impact on business, trade, investment, and export activities in many countries, including Vietnam.

Significant highlights 

Despite numerous difficulties, Vietnam's economy grew 5.33% in the third quarter, faster than in the previous two quarters, proving the effectiveness of government policies and solutions for socio-economic development.

Nguyen Thi Huong, Director General of the General Statistics Office (GSO), said:  "In the face of difficulties and challenges, many solutions have been actively implemented, such as reducing lending interest rates, stabilizing the foreign exchange market, exempting and relaxing taxes, fees, and land use fees to support businesses. Other measures included extending e-visa for tourists, solving difficulties of real estate businesses and the bond market, and paying attention to social security. As a result, Vietnam’s socio-economy is recovering and growing steadily."

Investment contributed greatly to Vietnam’s GDP growth of 4.24% in the past 9 months. Implemented public investment capital was estimated at more than 17.1 billion USD, equal to 57.4% of the year's plan, up 23.5% over the same period last year.

As of September 20, the total newly registered, adjusted capital and foreign investors’ share buying totaled more than 20.2 billion USD, up 7.7% over the same period last year. 

The growing number of businesses resuming operation is another positive sign for the economy.

Phi Thi Huong Nga, Director of the GSO’s Department of Industry and Construction Statistics, said: "In the third quarter, the number of businesses resuming operation was higher than in the 2018-2022 period and 1.4 times higher than in the same period in 2022. The number of businesses withdrawing from the market has been on a downward trend since 2019."

Amid global economic difficulties, these figures are encouraging. After 3 months of falling steeply, Vietnam's exports grew 4.6% in September and export turnover for 9 months was nearly 260 billion USD, while imports increased 2.6% in September.

Drivers of growth in remaining months of 2023 

In previous quarters, inflation was a concern for businessmen and managers. In the third quarter, inflation eased, according to the government’s September meeting, which promises greater prosperity for Vietnam's economy in the last months of the year.

Nguyen Thu Oanh, Director of the GOD’s Price Statistics Department, said: "From now until the end of the year, we are confident of achieving the inflation target set by the National Assembly. In order to control inflation, we need to closely monitor the development of world prices and anticipate risks that can affect Vietnam's inflation. We must produce sufficient goods to meet people's needs, control the prices of raw materials and input materials, and increase the use of domestic raw materials, fuel and materials to replace imported sources."

To promote economic growth in the last months of the year, there’s the question of whether or not to continue lowering interest rates to stimulate economic demand.

Pham Ngoc Thach, Deputy Head of the Legal Department of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said: "There is not much room to continue lowering Vietnam's interest rates in the coming months, due to the pressure of interest rates from the US and Europe. To improve capital accessibility, we need to help businesses develop investment plans and streamline procedures, especially project appraisal time."

In the next three months, the Government will roll out  major solutions for economic recovery and development, focusing on increasing capital accessibility and implementing flexible monetary and fiscal policies, strengthening production, stimulating demand, accelerating disbursement of public investment capital, and improving management.