In the 44 years since national reunification (April 30, 1975 - 2019), Vietnam's economy has obtained great achievements. From an underdeveloped economy, Vietnam has become a middle-income country with ongoing industrialization, modernization and international integration.
Boosted by doi moi (reform) policy since 1986, Vietnam has gained strong economic growth, with the per capita GDP rising 6.6% annually from 2000 to date. The economic size also increased 39 times to US$245 billion in 2018. GDP per capita climbed 28 times to nearly US$2,700 in 2018.
During more than three decades of reform and integration, macroeconomic stability has always been a cross-cutting goal at top priority, and a prerequisite for Vietnam in economic management and operation. Although the economy sometimes confronted high inflation that threatened macroeconomic stability in the transition phase, the Government generally made ongoing efforts to ensure macroeconomic stability and create the foundation for economic growth.
During highly volatile phases like the Asian financial and monetary crisis 1997-1998 or the financial crisis and global economic recession in 2008, Vietnam always focused on executing strong, consistent, effective solutions to curb inflation and enhance macroeconomic stability.
Without doubt, the Vietnamese economy has entered a stabilizing, recovering and developing phase since 2012. The consumer price index (CPI) decreased from 18.13% in 2011 to 6.81% in 2012 and 1.48% in 2018. Meanwhile, the gross domestic product (GDP) expansion increased from 5.25% in 2012 to 7.08% in 2018.
In 2018, overcoming difficulties and challenges, the country’s socioeconomic performance progressed positively and comprehensively in all aspects, helping boost production and business development and economic growth. The implementation of tight, flexible and effective monetary policy, the consistent coordination of fiscal, trade, investment, price and market policies helped control inflation as expected.
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), in 2018, Vietnam’s GDP expanded 7.08%, the highest growth since 2008. This illustrated ongoing and effective solutions adopted and directed by the Government and seriously followed by all-tier authorities and branches. Structurally, the agriculture - forestry - fishery sector, the industrial - construction sector and the service sector rose 3.76%, 8.85% and 7.03%, and contributed 8.7%, 48.6% and 42.7% to overall growth, respectively.
In 2018, the economic size reached VND5,535.3 trillion (US$241 billion); the per capita GDP was estimated at VND58.5 million (US$2,587), an increase of US$198 over 2017. Structurally the agriculture - forestry - fishery sector, the industrial - construction sector, the service sector and taxes minus subsidies, accounted for 14.57%, 34.28%, 41.17% and 9.98% of the GDP. The respective shares in 2017 were 15.34%, 33.40%, 41.26% and 10.0%).
Investment performance improved with many new production capacities added to the economy. The incremental capital-output ratio (ICOR) fell from 6.42 in 2016 to 6.11 in 2017 and 5.97 in 2018.
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