Vietnam to Achieve Strong Economic Growth in 2004-05: ADB
Vietnam looks set to achieve an economic growth of 7.5% in 2004 and 7.6% in 2005, compared with 7.1% last year, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report "Asia Development Outlook 2004" released on September 22, on the back of strong domestic demand and robust industry sectors.
Accordingly, local demand in Vietnam will rise 8.7% this year and 8.1% in 2005 and export growth will be 16.3% and 12%, respectively.
ADB also lowered trade deficit forecasts to $3.6 billion in 2004 and $3.8 billion in 2005 from $4.2 billion and $4.5 billion, which it had previously released in April, compared with $5.1 billion in 2003, thanks to strong on-year growth of exports in the January-August period of 25.7%.
The foreign bank also predicted Vietnam's inflation for the whole year to reach 9% due to the strong rise in food and foodstuff prices after the bird flu epidemic and the higher price of imported input materials for production.
Local industry will increase by 10% both in 2004 and 2005 thanks to strong growth in exports while the service sector will expand by 7.4% in the next two years consecutively and agriculture will inch up by 2.5% in 2004 and 2.7% in 2005.
Last year, according to ADB, Vietnam recorded a vigorous gross domestic production (GDP) growth of 7.1%, compared with the WB's assessment of 7% and the Vietnamese government's calculation of 7.24%. (The People Sep 23 p8, Econet Sep 23 p1, The Youth Sep 23 p16, Pioneer Sep 23 p13)
