In the Economic Outlook Report recently published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), Vietnam was the only economy in Southeast Asia with positive growth in 2020. The GDP in 2021 was forecasted to increase by 8%.
According to ICAEW, Southeast Asia's GDP was expected to rebound strongly to 6.2% by 2021. However, the economic recovery of Southeast Asia in 2021 still depends on the ease of blockade, global recovery, and successful deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine. Thus, the immunization progress will be an important determinant of the growth rates of the regional economies.
While the regional economies have had low GDP growth records, the Vietnamese economy in 2020 was considered a bright spot because of maintaining positive growth.
The Nikkei newspaper once stated that Vietnam was one of the rare economies in the world that recorded real GDP growth amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also, the Le Figaro (France) newspaper has recently evaluated Vietnam as one of the most dynamic countries in the world in 2020. Vietnam maintained positive growth at 2.9% despite the serious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy.
In fact, in 2020, the governing policy of the Vietnamese government of Vietnam was to realize a "dual goal" - both preventing and combating the pandemic, protecting the people's health, recovering and developing the economy and society. Because the COVID-19 pandemic situation is still complicated, Vietnam aims to prevent the pandemic from spreading to the community and to keep the country from being economically affected, stabilizing the society, creating jobs, and having necessary growth.
The Vietnamese government expects that the GDP growth in 2021 will reach 6%. According to World Bank estimates, the Vietnamese middle class is currently approximately the population of some countries and territories in the "four Asian tigers" group combined. By 2045, this class would account for over 50% of the population, equivalent to the Korean population. The proportion of poor households according to the multidimensional poverty standard decreased sharply from 9.8% in 2015 to less than 3% in 2020.
According to the General Statistics Office, despite the prolonged pandemic, the import and export turnover still increased significantly, reaching USD 543.9 billion, up 5.1% over the previous year. In 2020, Vietnam's trade surplus reached a record of USD 19.1 billion, which was the highest level in five years of trade surplus since 2016. The consumer price index (CPI) in 2020 increased by 3.23% compared to the previous year.
"Vietnam is considered as one of the 16 most successful emerging economies in the world. In 2020, amidst the pandemic, Vietnam still maintained positive growth at a fair rate". Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stated that Vietnam is currently the 40th largest economy in the world. In the ASEAN region, the GDP of Vietnam has surpassed Singapore and Malaysia, ranked the fourth. Vietnam strives to be ranked 19th in the world economy by 2035.
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis quickly caused Singapore to fall into a deep economic recession. The Singapore government announced that the country's economy could slow down from 6% to 6.5% in 2020. This was the worst recession in decades.
It was estimated that in 2020, the Singapore government had spent about SGD 100 billion (or USD 75.64 billion), equivalent to 20% of the national GDP, on the COVID-19 bailout packages, including support for households and businesses. The measures of pandemic control and economic stimulus have appeared to be effective as the Singapore economy began to show signs of recovery.
According to official forecasts from the government, the Singapore economy is expected to grow from 4% to 6% in 2021.
Compiled by VietnamCredit
