Local gross domestic product (GDP) climbed nearly 7 per cent in the first three quarters of 2019, reaching its highest level for the last nine years.

Director General of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Nguyen Bich Lam told a press conference on Saturday that amid declining global economic growth, Viet Nam still witnessed growth of 6.98 per cent in the first nine months of the year.

The major contributors were industry, construction and services. Specifically, industry and construction increased by 9.36 per cent, contributing 52.6 per cent to GDP, while services increased by 6.85 per cent, contributing 42.6 per cent.

The processing and manufacturing sector remained the pillar of growth, with a rate of 11.37 per cent, followed by the service industry which included wholesale and retail sales, financial activities, banking and insurance, transportation and warehouses.

Agriculture, forestry and fishery increased by 2.02 per cent, lower than the growth in the same period last year, because they faced formidable challenges as the prolonged heatwave decreased productivity while African swine fever outbreaks had threatened the livestock sector’s health. However, on Saturday, Lam announced those factors were declining.

Lam also announced that in the first nine months this year, there was a record of newly-established enterprises, reaching nearly 102,300. They also had the highest level of capital in recent years, reaching an average of VND12.6 billion (US$543,217) each.

According to the latest business survey, 43.3 per cent of businesses rated their business performance in the period as “better than before”, 18.3 per cent said it was “difficult” and 38.4 per cent rated the period as “stable.”

Investment capital in the first nine months reached a decent growth rate of 10.3 per cent, higher than the same period in 2018, of which the non-state economic sector reached VND624.6 trillion ($26.93 billion), accounting for the largest proportion of 43.5 per cent and the growth rate of 16.9 per cent, while the investment capital of the state sector was VND426.6 trillion ($18.3 billion), accounting for 33 per cent of the growth rate of three per cent.

The FDI sector reached VND327.1 trillion ($14.1 billion) accounting for 23.7 per cent at a growth rate of 8.4 per cent. It is noteworthy that investment capital from the State budget has not improved much, continuing to reach the lowest growth rate in the years 2015-19.

Lam said that the total import and export turnover was estimated at $382.72 billion, of which exports reached $194.3 billion, up 8.2 per cent over the same period last year. Trade balance of goods in 9 months was estimated at $5.9 billion, said Lam.

GSO disclosed the consumer price index (CPI) in the period grew at the slowest pace over the past three years at 2.5 per cent. — VNS