(Bloomberg) --
Vietnam's economic growth quickened in the third quarter, underpinned by solid growth in exports and manufacturing.
Gross domestic product rose 7.31% from a year earlier, up from a revised 6.73% in the second quarter, the General Statistics Office in Hanoi said Saturday. That compared to a median estimate of 6.7% in a Bloomberg survey of four economists. The economy expanded 6.98% in the nine months through September from a year earlier, data from the statistics office showed.
“Manufacturing is the main driver of economic growth in the first nine months of the year, followed by services,” Nguyen Bich Lam, head of General Statistics Office, said at Hanoi briefing on Saturday.
Key Insights
- Exports rose 8.2% in the first nine months of 2019 from the same period in 2018, while imports climbed 8.9%
- The U.S.-China trade war is weighing on global growth and hurting prospects for export-reliant nations like Vietnam. At the same time, it's also creating positive spillovers as businesses shift production from China to Vietnam to bypass tariffs. Foreign direct investment and exports have climbed this year
- Vietnam's central bank earlier this month cut interest rates for the first time in more than two years to help support the economy amid rising global risks
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- Manufacturing rose 11.37% in the nine months through September from a year earlier
- Consumer prices rose 1.98% in September from a year earlier. The government aims to cap average inflation at 4% this year
Vietnam could end the year with an inflation rate of less than 3%, lower than the government's 4% target as food prices remain stable, said Do Thi Ngoc, head of the consumer prices department at the General Statistics Office.
Vietnam's nine-month agricultural output growth slowed to 2.02% from 3.7% a year earlier, said Le Trung Hieu, head of agriculture in the statistics office. African swine fever has reduced the nation's hog herd by 19%, contributing to the decelerating of agriculture production growth, Hieu added.
--With assistance from Nguyen Kieu Giang and Nguyen Xuan Quynh.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen in Hanoi at uyen1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, John Boudreau, Michael S. Arnold
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