Citigroup Inc. revised its full-year forecast to 6.9% from 6.7% previously, on the basis of another solid performance in the fourth quarter. Analysts at Maybank Kim Eng Research Ltd. now anticipate a 7% growth for the year versus a prior call of 6.8%. And United Overseas Bank Ltd. changed its forecast to 6.8% for the year from 6.7%, while Capital Economics Ltd. held their projection of 7%. Solid exports and manufacturing growth underpinned the third-quarter gain of 7.31%, despite a regional slowdown triggered by US-China and Japan-South Korea trade tensions and waning global demand.

Rising foreign direct investment and buoyant domestic demand, as evidenced by  recent robust retail sales growth, will keep carry through the year-end and in to early 2020, according to research by Maybank economists Linda Liu and Chua Hak Bin.

HSBC said Vietnamese inflation is forecast to hit only 2.7% this year, citing a GDP of 6.7% year on year. Standard Chartered’s regional head of research for Southeast Asia, Edward Lee Wee Kok, said he believes Vietnam is set to be the fastest-growing economy in ASEAN this year with a growth rate of 6.9%, which will be maintained through to 2021. According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), Vietnam posted a year-on-year GDP growth of 6.98% in the January-September period, the highest nine month growth rate of the last nine years.