Vietnam’s economy sees positive changes: World Bank
Amid a protracted COVID-19 outbreak, socio-economic data in October showed the contraction has bottommed out and Vietnam's economy has made positive changes, the World Bank (WB) in Vietnam said in its Vietnam macroeconomic update for November released on November 12.
Hanoi (VNA) – Amid a protracted COVID-19 outbreak, socio-economic data in October showed the contraction has bottommed out and Vietnam's economy has made positive changes, the World Bank (WB) in Vietnam said in its Vietnam macroeconomic updatefor November released on November 12.
The country's industrial production and totalretail sales of consumer goods and services rebounded as economic activitiesgradually resumed but have yet to recover to the levels recorded before theoutbreak, which began in April. Goods trade balance registered a surplus for the secondmonth in a row as import growth continued to slow down. For the first ten months of this year, Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of 160 million USD. Meanwhile, the number of registeredFDI decreased after three months of increase.
Despite rising fuel prices, inflation remained subdueddue to falling food prices and weak domestic demand for other consumerproducts. Credit growth was stable in October. State budget revenue andexpenditure balance returned to surplus in October mainly driven by a sharp fall in budget expenditures although revenues continued to decrease for the third month. In general, for the ten-monthperiod, the budget surplus was a sign that tight fiscal policy would continueto be implemented.
According to WB experts, Vietnam is facing many obstacles inrestarting the economy after a prolonged period of social isolation, but thepositive developments observed in October showed that the situation willcontinue to improve, and growth will accelerate in the months to come./.
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Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) 
