Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s economy maintained growth across sectors,especially tourism, in the first eight months of 2019 despite global economic challengesand escalating trade tensions, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at acabinet meeting in Hanoi on September 4.

PMPhuc said industry and agriculture recorded growth despite unfavourablefactors. Meanwhile, the macroeconomy remained stable and inflation was curbedat 2.5 percent, the lowest level in the past three years, he said.

Theexchange rate was stable, the government leader noted, adding that the confidencein the Vietnamese “dong” was confirmed, while many countries' currenciesdepreciated against the US dollar.

Exportsincreased significantly and trade surplus reached a record of more than 3.4billion USD, he noted.

Theprotection of national territorial sovereignty has seen complicateddevelopments, however, competent forces have done their best under theleadership of the Party and Government, PM Phuc stressed.

ThePM also mentioned shortcomings such as the slow disbursement of publicinvestment capital, landslides in the Mekong Delta and difficulties inagriculture and transport infrastructure, requesting relevant departments andsectors to quickly address the issues.

Duringthe meeting, the Government will discuss the socio-economic development plan in2020, the report evaluating the implementation of the State budget in 2019 andState budget estimates in 2020 as well as the State budget financial plan in2020-2022.

Accordingto the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the socio-economic performance inAugust and the first eight months of 2019 was positive.

Inthe January-August period, the disbursement of foreign direct investment (FDI)reached about 12 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of 6.3 percent.

Nearly90,500 new businesses were established with total registered capital of over1.15 quadrillion VND (49.45 billion USD), up 3.5 percent and 32 percentrespectively.

Thenumber of enterprises that suspended operations decreased by 7 percent andthose resuming operations increased by 21.8 percent.

Theindex of industrial production (IIP) was estimated to expand by 9.5 percent, lowerthan the same period in 2018, but still higher than the same period in 2016 and2017.

Total retail sales of goods and services were estimated at over 3.2 quadrillion VND(137.6 billion USD), up 11.5 percent year-on-year.

Thecountry welcomed 11.3 million international tourists, a yearly increase of 8.7percent.

Goods exports hit nearly 170 billion USD, up 7.3 percentyear-on-year, of which exports of the domestic economic sector increased by13.9 percent.-VNA