ID :
17485
Sat, 08/30/2008 - 11:23
Auther :

Vietnam's economy on right track of development

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam 's economy has shown positive signs of stable development with slight rises in consumer price index (CPI) and trade deficit and strong increases in foreign direct investment (FDI) influx and disbursement.

The country's trade deficit stood at 900 million USD in August. This is the third consecutive month that the figure has been kept under 1 billion USD - the necessary average level for the curtailment of trade deficit equal to 30 percent of the country's export revenues in 2008.

Over the first eight months of the year, the country's trade deficit
reached about 16 billion USD, representing 36.8 percent of its total export turnover. The rate was 40.7 percent one month ago.

The curtailment was attributed to the Government's drastic measures,
including the use of tariffs to curb the import of luxury goods. Noteworthy,
the import of CBU (completely-built unit) cars has declined since May due to
three consecutive tax increases in the first half of the year.

Meanwhile, outstanding export achievements have contributed to keeping
trade balance. The nation fetched 43.3 billion USD from exports in the past
eight months, a year-on-year rise of more than 39 percent.

With the CPI rising only 1.56 percent in August despite the readjustment of
petrol prices, the country for the first time saw the "slight" impact on the
market from petrol prices hike.

The nation also attracted more than 47 billion USD in foreign direct
investment (FDI) in the first eight months of the year, a 4.7 fold increase
over the same period last year. It also reported the record disbursed
capital amount of over 7 billion USD since the Foreign Investment Law became
effective in 1988.

The country also had more than 1.3 billion USD in official development
assistance (ODA) disbursed which have helped ease the pressure on the
economy's balance of payments.

To curb inflation, promote production and stabilize macro-economy, the
Ministry of Planning and Investment said that it would be strict with slow
disbursement projects while the Ministry of Finance will continue using tax
as an effective tool to constrain imports of luxuries.-Enditem

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