Vietnam Economy 2018 In 9 Indicators

1. GDP Growth Rate

GDP in 2018 achieved an estimated growth of 7.08% compared with the same period last year. It has been the highest increase since 2011 onwards. 

Source: GSO, VietnamCredit

In the growth rate of 7.08% of the entire economy, the sector of agriculture, forestry and fishery with the considerable recovery reached the growth rate of 3.76%, contributed 8.7% points to the general growth; the sector of industry and construction rose by 8.85%, contributed 48.6% points; the service sector climbed by 7.03%, contributed 42.7% points.

Size of the economy in 2018 at current prices reached 5,535.3 trillion dongs; GDP per capital was estimated to be 58.5 million dongs, equivalent to US$ 2,587, an increase of US$ 198 compared to that in 2016. About 2018 economic structure, the sector of agriculture, forestry and fishery made up 14.57%; the sector of industry and construction accounted for 34.28%; the service sector represented 41.17%; the taxes less subsidies on production accounted for 9.98% 
 

2. Consumer price index (CPI)

Average CPI in 2018 increased by 3.54% compared to that in 2017. CPI in December 2017 grew by 2.98% over December 2017. The average CPI in 2018 increased due to the following main reasons:
 

• Adjusting the price of medical services according to Circular No. 02/2017 / TT-BYT and Circular No. 39/2018 / TT-BYT led to increase health service prices by 13.86% (The overall CPI impact increased by 0.54%).

• Increasing tuition fees according to Decree No. 86/2015 / ND-CP made the price index of education services group in 2018 increase 7.12% compared to the same period of 2017 (The overall CPI impact increased by 0.37%)

• The increase in the regional minimum wage applies to employees in enterprises from January 1, 2018 and the basic salary level applicable to cadres, civil servants, officials and armed forces from July 1 / 2018 made the average price of some types of services such as repairing household appliances, housing maintenance, electricity, water services, domestic maid service in 2018 increased from 3%  to 5% 

Source: GSO, VietnamCredit

3. FDI

From the beginning of the year to December 20, 2018, FDI attracted 3046 newly licensed projects with the total registered capital of US$ 17.97 billion, up 17.6% in the number of projects and down 15.5% in the registered capital against the similar period in 2017. Besides, there were 1169 times of license-granted projects from previous years registered to adjust investment capital with the additional capital of US$ 7.6 billion, a decrease of 9.7% from the same period last year, bringing the total of newly registered capital and additional capital in 2018 to US$ 25.6 billion.

Source: GSO, VietnamCredit

There are 54 provinces and municipalities granted new FDI projects licensed in 2018, of which Hanoi has the largest registered capital with USD 5,041.1 million, accounting for 28% total new registered capital.

Among 75 countries and territories with new licensed investment projects in Vietnam this year, Japan is the largest investor with US $ 6,592.1 million, accounting for 36.7% of the total registered capital.

4. Inflation

Core inflation in December 2018 increased by 0.09% over the previous month and by 1.7% over the same period last year. 

Source: GSO, VietnamCredit

Average core inflation in 2017 rose by 1.48% compared to that in 2017.

5. Index For Industrial Production (IIP)

Generally, in 2018, the index of industrial production (IIP) for the whole industry increased by 10.2% over 2017. In the industrial sector, the manufacturing grew by 12.3%, contributed the largest share to the general growth of the whole industry with 9.5% points.

Source: GSO, VietnamCredit

The industrial production index of 2018 of most provinces and municipalities increased compared to the previous year, of which Ha Tinh is the locality with the highest growth rate with an increase of 89% due to the contribution of Formosa Group, followed by Thanh Hoa, increased by 34.9% mainly due to the new Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Co., Ltd. which has been in production since mid-2018.

6. Export - Import Turnover

The import-export turnover of Vietnam in 2018 reached USD482.23 billion, of which export turnover reached USD244.72 billion, import turnover reached USD237.51 billion.

Generally, in 2018, Vietnam had trade surplus of US$ 7.2 billion, of which the domestic economic sector had trade deficit of US$25.6 billion; the FDI sector had trade surplus of US$32.8 billion. 
 

In 2018, there were 29 items with export turnover of over USD1 billion, accounting for 91.7% of the total export turnover, of which 9 items reached over USD5 billion and 5 items reached over USD10 billion.

The United States is Vietnam's largest export market with a turnover of USD47.5 billion

7. Business Registration Situation

In 2018, there are 131,275 newly registered enterprises with a total registered capital of 1,478.1 trillion dongs, an increase of 3.5% in the number of enterprises and 14.1% rise in the registered capital against 2017. In addition, there were 34,010 enterprises returning to operation, up 28.6% over the previous year, bringing the total number of newly registered enterprises and re-operated enterprises in the year to 165.3 thousand enterprises. Total number of registered laborers of newly established enterprises in 2017 was 1,107.1 thousand people, decreasing by 4.7% from 2017.

Source: GSO, VietnamCredit

8. Labor Productivity

Labor productivity for the whole economy in 2018 at current prices was estimated at 102 million dongs per worker (equivalent to about US$ 4512 per worker). At 2010 comparative prices, labor productivity for the entire economy in 2018 increased by 5.93% from 2017; on an average, it grew by 5.75% per year in the period 2016-2018.

9. Global Competitiveness Index (GCI)

According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2018 released at the World Economic Forum, Vietnam ranked 77th out of 140 countries, 3 places lower than 2017.

Source: World Economic Forum

Ranking reduction is because Vietnam's competitiveness has not improved much when the evaluation criteria changed to meet the requirements of the 4.0 revolution.

Factors causing this ranking reduction are market efficiency, institutions, technology, labour skills, innovation ability.

With high GDP growth rate, high export growth rate, the economy is still keeping its current competitiveness quite well. However, this result is relying heavily on capital, resources and cheap labor. That is, we are still on the first step of the development process according to the WEF assessment.

Learn more: INFOGRAPHIC: VIETNAM ECONOMY IN THE FIRST 9 MONTHS OF 2018