3:19:28 PM | 1/10/2008
Vietnam will unlikely maintain GDP growth rate of 7 per cent this year on fear that industrial production sector, one of two drivers of the country’s GDP growth, will slow down due to rising costs, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Cao Viet Sinh told mass media.
In the first nine months this year, the industrial production and construction value accounting for 39.86 per cent of the country’s GDP value soared only 7.09 per cent on year to VND144.213 trillion (US$8.74 billion), lower than 10.15 per cent from a year ago, GSO statistics showed.
Sinh attributed the decreasing growth rate of the industrial and construction sector to government efforts to cut public investment and tightened monetary and fiscal policies to curb inflation, a move to cool down overheat of the economy last year, the Saigon Economic Times said.
Furthermore, Vietnam exports are forecast to face difficulties in the context of the global economic turmoil, particularly the U.S., the biggest export market of Vietnam, accounting for 20 per cent of total exports values, Sinh added.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment also forecast that the government of Vietnam will curb inflation to below 25 per cent this year and the government will focus on the quality of disbursements of FDI and ODA this year.
The government also has set a target to narrow the trade deficit to less than US$20 billion this year, the ministry said. (Saigon Economic Times,
www.vietstock.com.vn ) )
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