World Bank: Vietnam's Inflation Trend Is Strengthening, Requiring Close Attention

    The World Bank report indicates that in the third quarter of this year, Vietnam's GDP grew by 5.3% year-on-year. The gradual recovery of industry helps to maintain growth momentum, with a contribution rate of 1.9 percentage points to GDP. The recovery of industrial production reflects the continuous improvement in goods exports since May 2023. In the third quarter, the service industry and agriculture saw year-on-year growth of 6.2% and 3.7%, respectively. These two areas contributed 2.7 and 0.4 percentage points to the GDP growth in the third quarter, respectively. This growth rate and contribution are comparable to the previous two quarters.
    After a 10 month decline, Vietnam's exports and imports increased by 5.3% and 2.6% year-on-year in September this year, reflecting an improvement in external demand and indicating that the decline in goods trade has bottomed out. Therefore, the decline in exports and imports in the third quarter of 2023 also showed negative growth of 1.2% and 5.0%, respectively.
    The World Bank report also pointed out that Vietnam's inflation rate increased from 3% in August to 3.7% in September. Since June, the inflation rate has continued to rise, with prices of food, housing, and building materials rising, leading to a significant increase in inflation. In addition, due to the increase in oil prices between July and September this year, transportation service prices contributed 0.3 percentage points to the growth rate of the consumer price index.