The Vietnamese economy expanded at 5.03 per cent in the first quarter of this year, the General Statistics Office said on Tuesday.

This is higher than the growth rate of Q1 last year at 4.72 per cent and the rate of Q1/2020 at 3.66 per cent, but still lower than the rate recorded in 2019 at 6.85 per cent.

Viet Nam'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 per cent, the industrial and construction sector 6.38 per cent and the services sector at 4.58 per cent, contributing 5.76 per cent, 51.08 per cent and 43.16 per cent to overall economic growth, respectively.

The GSO pointed out that in agriculture-forestry-fishery sector, rice yield in the Mekong River Delta increased by 0.7 tonnes per hectare compared to the previous year's same period. The livestock industry was gradually recovering and wood processing and exports were seeing many positive signals.

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 per cent, 7.06 per cent, 2.98 per cent and 1.79 per cent, respectively.

According to the GSO, in terms of economic structure, in Q1, the agriculture-forestry-fishery sector accounted for nearly 11 per cent of the country’s economy; the industry-construction and service sectors made up almost 38 per cent and 41.7 per cent, respectively.

Regarding GDP use, final consumption expenditure increased by 4.28 per cent over the same period last year; accumulated assets rose by 3.22 per cent; exports of goods and services up 5.08 per cent; imports of goods and services up 4.20 per cent.

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 per cent.

The office said CPI in March increased by 0.7 per cent 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.

The price of rice in January-March increased by 1.1 per cent year-on-year, contributing 0.03 percentage points to the CPI.

Meanwhile, food and catering, and education services respectively posted declines of 1.2 per cent and 4.24 per cent against the same period last year.

Notably, house rent strongly fell by 15.14 per cent year-on-year due to a cut in rental prices to support people facing difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Core inflation in the quarter was up 0.81 per cent compared to a year ago, the GSO said.

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.

The price of goods and raw materials in the world was continuing to increase sharply in the context of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, causing disruptions to the global supply chain, especially the prices of petrol, which put great pressure on production costs, she said.

“Viet Nam'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 fertiliser 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 per cent set by National Assembly,” she said.  — VNS