WB: Vietnam’s economy continues to show resilience
The World Bank (WB) on March 11 released its brief updating Vietnam’s economic development in March, stating that the economy continues to show resilience and is recovering although downside risks have heightened.
Available data suggest continued recovery of domestic economic activities, with industrial production growing by 8.5 percent year on year and a broad-based improvement in manufacturing despite the surge of new COVID-19 cases to over 100,000 infections per day by the end of February.
After falling in January, production of computers, electronics, and optical products bounced back, posting a year-on-year growth of 9.1 percent. Apparel manufacturing maintained strong performance with a 24.7 percent growth against the same period last year, according to the report.
Retail sales grew by an estimated 3.1 percent in February. Sales of consumer services continued to recover, increasing by 5.9 percent, the first expansion since May 2021, as accommodation and catering services sales grew strongly. Sales of goods increased by 2.4 percent.
With imports growing much faster than exports, trade balance deteriorated from a surplus of 1.4 billion USD in January to a deficit of 2 billion USD in February.
Higher export growth rate could be attributed to phones, computers and electronics and machinery, whose exports grew by 6.2 percent in February.
Exports of garment-textile remained strong, growing by 25.8 percent. Strengthening…
