Economic spotlights

Over the past two and a half years, the economy has maintained growth impetuses.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) assessed that Viet Nam remains a bright spot in gloomy global economic picture.

In practice, the Southeast Asian nation reported 2.56 percent growth rate in 2021 and 8.02 percent in 2022. In Q1, 2023, despite a low growth rate of 3.2 percent, Viet Nam was forecast to grow over 6 percent in 2023.

The national credit rating and international standing are improved. Macro-monetary balances and indicators remained basically stable; public debt, bad debt is controlled and annual inflation is maintained at the spre-set target of below 4 percent.

The processes of digital transformation and digital economy boom take place vigoriously in Viet Nam.

Export emerged as a spotlight in which total trade turnover hit over US$ 735 billion in 2022, up 9.5 percent against the 2021, export grew 10.6 percent and import picked up 8.4 percent.

The number of domestic and international visitors also contributed to tourism recovery. Especially, Viet Nam welcomed over 3.6 million foreign arrivals in 2022, up 23.3 times against 2021.

Viet Nam is one of 25 countries that have reduced their MPI (Multidimensional Poverty Index) by 50 percent. Only about 3.6 percent of Viet Nam's population is currently vulnerable to multidimensional poverty.

So far, 5,869 out of 8,225 commues accounting for 71.4 percent met new rural standards.

Viet Nam become a bright spot in the region and the world not only in terms of disease control, economic growth, and poverty reduction, but also its performance in international rankings.

Improved performance in global rankings

In 2021, Viet Nam was the only country in the world that has been upgraded by all three credit rating agencies, including Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch, from "Stable" to "Positive" since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Viet Nam continues to be honored by the World Travel Awards as Asia's Top Destination, just like in 2018 and 2019; at the same time, was honored as Asia's Leading Sustainable Tourism Destination; Ha Long Bay (Quang Ninh) was honored as Asia's Leading Attraction City, Hoi An (Quang Nam) is Asia's leading cultural urban destination and Cuc Phuong National Park (Ninh Binh) was honored as Asia's leading national park.

In 2022, Viet Nam became the fourth largest economy in ASEAN, ranking the 40th place in the world. Viet Nam was in Top 20 economies for international trade.

The country ranked 48th out of 132 countries in the Global Innovation Index.

Viet Nam ranked 6th out of the 10 ASEAN member countries and 55th globally in the 2022 Government AI Readiness Index, up seven places compared to 2021, according to the index report released by the UK’s Oxford Insights.

The Southeast Asian nation was listed among the world's top 30 powerful countries in 2022 by US News & World Report. With a GDP of over US$ 363 billion and a population of more than 98.2 million, Viet Nam stands at the 30th position in the rankings, only after Singapore (26th position) among the Southeast Asian countries.

Viet Nam ranks 65th out of 137 countries and territories in the 2020-2022 period as per the World Happiness Report 2023, up 12 places from the 2022 Report./. VGP