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Vietnamese economy shows signs of recovery
The Vietnamese economy is showing signs of recovery following improvement in the trade balance, a slight increase in the stock market and positive signals in real estate.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, trade deficit was reported at 725 million USD in June as compared with 1.9 billion USD in May and 3.2 billion USD in the previous month.
A newly-released Standard Chartered Bank report said Vietnam’s trade deficit dropped to the lowest level in June since early year.
Meanwhile, exports rose 35.8 percent in the first six months of this year to 30.6 billion USD, helping reduce trade deficit to 14.2 billion USD in the period.
Speaking at an economic meeting on emerging economies in Hanoi last month, the former governor of the Reserve Bank of India , Bimal Jalan, said improvements in the trade balance have created internal strength for Vietnam and with it, the national economy will recover soon.
Worries over a possible collapse of the realty market have also eased. Lending for real estate investment recorded 135 trillion VND in the first five months of this year, making up 10 percent of the total lending at commercial banks.
The stock market has also showed signs of recovery with its key index – the VN-Index – registering a continuous increase since the beginning of the month. It hit 483,05 points in the July 18 trading session after months of falling.
Both savings and lending interest rates as well as the exchange rates between Vietnam dong and foreign currencies have dropped from a month ago.
Foreign investment reached a record 31.6 billion USD in the first half-year, over 3.7 times of the same period last year, the General Statistics Office said.
General Director of Singapore’s DBS Bank Yit Fan Wong said he believed that current difficulty is only in short term and a strategic plan should not be stopped due to these small difficulties.
We look at basic foundation of Vietnam and we are not worried, Wong said during the launch of the DBS office in Hanoi late last month.
VNA
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