In its latest “Asia Economics Quarterly” report, HSBC said despite unprecedented challenges, Vietnam has strongly overcome the pandemic crisis. With a population of over 95 million, the country has managed to flatten the COVID-19 curve much sooner and keep the infection tally at around 1,400 thanks to swift and effective prevention efforts by State agencies.
Though the 2020 GDP growth of 2.91 percent was the lowest in the recent decade, it was still assessed as a big success and among the world’s highest considering the complicated development of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Inflation decelerated from 3.9 percent in the first three quarters to 1.5 percent in November compared to the same period of 2019 thanks to normalised good prices and declined oil prices.
HSBC researchers expressed their belief that Vietnam will benefit from tech-led recovery, sustained FDI inflow, and many free trade agreements signed.
However, they still slightly revised the country’s 2021 growth forecast down to 7.6 percent, from the previous estimate of 8.1 percent, due to a prolonged recovery in the tourism industry./.
