The Vietnamese economy expanded at 5.03 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to the figures announced by the General Statistics Office (GSO) on March 29.
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| Nguyen Thi Huong, General Director of GSO, spoke at a press conference to announce socio-economic statistics in the first quarter__Photo: Tuan Anh/VNA |
Accordingly, this is higher than the growth rate of Q1 last year at 4.72 percent and the rate of Q1/2020 at 3.66 percent, but still lower than the rate recorded in 2019 at 6.85 percent.
Vietnam's economy in the first three months of 2022 had seen many positive changes compared to the previous year, Nguyen Thi Huong, General Director of GSO, said at a press conference to announce socio-economic statistics in the first quarter, adding that the service industry was seeing strong recovery and the industrial sector was developing quite well, especially manufacturing.
The agro-forestry-fishery sector grew at 2.45 percent, the industrial and construction sector 6.38 percent and the services sector at 4.58 percent, contributing 5.76 percent, 51.08 percent and 43.16 percent to overall economic growth, respectively.
Aquaculture had developed stably, and pangasius and shrimp were sold at high prices due to strong demand.
The service sector in the first quarter prospered as many services were resumed. Contributions of some market service industries with a large proportion to the total added value were financial, banking and insurance activities; transport and warehousing; wholesale and retail sectors, lodging and catering services with 9.75 percent, 7.06 percent, 2.98 percent and 1.79 percent, respectively.
According to the GSO, in terms of economic structure, in Q1, the agriculture-forestry-fishery sector accounted for nearly 11 percent of the country’s economy; the industry-construction and service sectors made up almost 38 percent and 41.7 percent, respectively.
Regarding GDP use, final consumption expenditure increased by 4.28 percent over the same period last year; accumulated assets rose by 3.22 percent; exports of goods and services up 5.08 percent; imports of goods and services up 4.20 percent.
CPI up 1.92 in Q1
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the first quarter of 2022 posted a year-on-year rise of 1.92 percent.
The office said CPI in March increased by 0.7 percent month-on-month, the highest monthly increase since 2012. Among the 11 groups of key commodities and services, 10 experienced price hikes from the previous month.
According to GSO General Director Nguyen Thi Huong, hikes of petrol and gas prices in tandem with global fuel prices, and prices of construction materials, contributed to the increase in the overall CPI in the last quarter.
Huong said so far, the prices of domestic consumer goods had been basically brought under control but inflation pressure in the remaining months of the year was still quite high.
“Vietnam's economy is likely to recover more strongly in the next quarters, increasing demand for goods and services will push up commodity prices. It is inevitable that prices of domestic consumer goods will be affected by world prices as the supply of fertilizer and grain used for animal feed declines sharply,” Huong said.
“Therefore, the management and administration of prices in the future should be more cautious, proactive and flexible in order to keep the CPI growth rate at 4 percent set by National Assembly,” she said. (VLLF)
