Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s economy enjoyed a more sustainable growth in thefirst quarter of the year with a strong economic expansion of 7.38 percent, thebest first-quarter performance in the last decade.

The growth was fairly even in three main sectors with agro-forestry-fisheryincreasing by 4.05 percent, industry-construction posting a 9.7 percent growthrate and services climbing 6.7 percent.

Meanwhile,the processing and manufacturing sector witnessed a record growth of 13.56percent in recent seven years.

The economic restructuring is moving in a rational fashion with theagro-forestry-fishery sector accounting for a proportion of 10.34 percent inthe economy while the industry-construction and services sectors making up of35.26 percent and 43.77 percent, respectively.

More than 26,700 enterprises were established during January-March, with totalregistered capital of nearly 278.5 trillion VND (12.25 billion USD), up 1.2percent in volume and 2.7 percent in value compared to the same time last year.

Nearly 7,900 businesses added 485.5 trillion VND to their capital while 8,449others resumed operations.

The economy boasted strong development prospects as the number of enterprisesthat ceased operations dropped 1.4 percent to 8,115 while many enterprises feltupbeat about their stable production and business situations, according to asurvey from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.

Also, domestic production was stimulated by a surge of 9.9 percent in retailsales and revenue of consumption services to more than 1 trillion VND (44million USD).

There was also a boom in the number of international arrivals to Vietnam, withover 4.2 million people, up 30.9 percent year-on-year.

In the period, non-state investment totalled 138.8 trillion VND (6.1 billion USD),or 41.9 percent of the total investment, much higher than foreign directinvestment which made up 26.5 percent.

Export revenue was estimated at 54.31 billion USD, up 22 percent. Thrivinggrowth was seen in key export markets like China (46 percent), the Republic ofKorea (35.8 percent), the EU (19.7 percent), ASEAN (13.5 percent), Japan (12percent) and the US (11.3 percent).

Although the increase in some public services and gasoline prices, wages andcredit scale exert a lot of pressure on the consumer price index (CPI), therate was under control. The Quarter 1’s CPI grew 2.82 percent while coreinflation (CPI exclusive of fresh food, energy and State-run health and educationservices) was up 1.34 percent.

The robust achievements were spurred by sound economic growth in Quarter 4 of2017, new opportunities from stable economic development and efforts of thebusiness community and drastic state management.

This year, Vietnamhas many advantages to realise its GDP growth target of 6.7 percent likeimproved business climate and increased exports of agricultural products,garments and textiles, footwear, telephones, spare parts and electronicproducts.

However, inflation rate, public debt, technical barriers and difficulties in respondingto climate change are in the first line of the country’s challenges this year.Relevant ministries and sectors must follow the scenario of the CPI growth rateof 3.55 percent to take specific measures and solutions while putting forthstate capital divestment at large corporations and enhancing financialdisciplines and tax inspections.-VNA