Vietnam’s GDP per capita in 2008 is estimated at US$1,027-US$1,030, higher than the levels of some economies with medium incomes. However, the figures do not consider the whole year’s inflation and the currency devaluation, the Vietnamnet newswire under the Ministry of Information and Communication said, citing the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The GDP per capita figure has been calculated by GSO, based on the market prices and the national economy’s performance in the first nine months of the year. In 2007, the average income per capita was US$835. According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam’s will see the economic growth rate of 6.5 per cent-7 per cent this year.
Nguyen Bich Lam, deputy general director of GSO said that the figure of over US$1,000 has been estimated for the whole year of 2008, based on the forecast GDP growth rate for 2008, supposed average exchange rate in 12 months, and the population of 86.18 million people.
GSO has calculated macroeconomic indicators, including GDP per capita, to serve the government’s building of economic scenarios for 2009.
Vietnam’s GDP per capita in 2008 will be announced in the statistics yearbook to come out in May next year.
Expert of an international institution in Vietnam said that it was necessary to consider the actual impacts of economic growth on people’s lives based on the purchasing power of the currency. For example, a person with the income of VND10 million in 2007 and VND11 million in 2008 receives a higher salary. However, the VND1 million increase is not enough to cover price increases, estimated at 22 per cent in 2008.
According to the World Bank, when GDP per capita exceeds US$950, countries are removed from the group of countries with low incomes and become countries with medium incomes.
The GDP per capita of over US$1,000 would be a surprise for many Vietnamese people. Of the 9,500 people who participated in a quick survey on local newspaper VnExpress.net, 60.7 per cent thought that the GDP per capita would be below US$800, and only 10.9 per cent thought that the figure would be higher than US$1,000.
In a letter to Vietnamese teachers on Teachers’ Day, November 20, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan wrote that in 2008, for the first time, the GDP per capita of Vietnam will exceed US$1,000 per annum. “Vietnam will escape from the list of poor countries in the world,” he wrote. (VietnamNet, vnexpress.net)
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