Steady recovery amid global headwinds

Official data released by the General Statistics Office showed Viet Nam's GDP growth in the third quarter accelerated to 5.33 percent, bringing the GDP growth rate to 4.24 percent in the first nine months this year.

The Q3 GDP growth indicates that Viet Nam has maintained steady recovery as the economy only expanded 3.28 percent and 4.05 percent in January-March and April-June period.

The Q3 GDP growth was mainly driven by strong expansion of the service sector which rose by 5.61 percent compared to -0.49 percent in the first quarter and 0.6 percent in the second quarter.

In addition, exports grew 4.6 percent against the same period last year while imports increased by 2.6 percent year-on-year following a period of 10-month decrease.

The disbursed volume of foreign direct investment picked up 2.2 percent year-on-year in September and 17.2 percent from January to September.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment predicted that in the "best case" scenario, the Vietnamese economy may expand 6 percent in 2023.

In July, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) revised down Viet Nam's 2023 GDP growth to 5.8 percent from 6.5 percent given the fact that weak external demand continues to put pressure on manufacturing and industrial production, while domestic conditions are expected to improve./.