Vietnam Economy: Growth in 2015 highest in five years

HANOI: Vietnam’s economy in 2015 grew at its fastest pace in five years, official figures showed, shaking off regional economic worries with strong exports, record foreign investment and buoyant domestic consumption. The communist nation recorded a GDP growth rate of 6.68%, easily surpassing the government’s 6.2% target. Much of the growth has been fuelled by a flurry of international interest with disbursed foreign investment surging 17.4% compared to last year with a record-high of $14.5 billion. Senior economist Le Dang Doanh said the strong industrial growth also helped boost the economy as well as ‘lower oil prices in the world market greatly reduced the cost of imported raw materials for the country’ Vietnam is now party to the recently sealed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the world’s largest free trade deal between 12 nations, including the US and Japan. In a report, the World Bank said the TPP deal could add as much as 8% to Vietnam’s GDP over the next 20 years if it goes ahead.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2015.

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