Officials overly upbeat on economic outlook

Vietnam’s economic picture still looks fairly positive due to strong consumption despite of numerous business shutdowns, government officials said at a meeting held on Wednesday by the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Deputy minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Trung said: “The economic outlook is rather positive, if we do not look at the number of shut-down businesses.”

“The economy in the first 10 months is very positive. Production and business sectors are developing well. Export increases, while trade deficit plunges, the State budget revenue is good, and CPI slows down,” the ministry said in a report at the seminar held to review economic performance in the first 10 months of the year.

Deputy director of the General Statistical Office Nguyen Bich Lam said that consumption in the country remained good as shown in the industrial consumption index that increased more than 10 percent in the year to date.

Deputy director of Hanoi City’s Department of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Tu agreed, saying that commerce and services in the capital increased well.

“This means that spending of Hanoians continue to increase. The economic downturn did not adversely affect consumption by the capital residents. This has helped boost Hanoi’s economy,” Tu said.

He added that trade deficit of Hanoi City alone amounted to US dollar 12 billion in the first 10 months, which shows that strong consumption has stimulated expansion.

Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Planning and Investment, echoed Tu’s view, saying that commerce and services sectors in the city increased 24 percent in the first ten months.

“This shows that residents continue to increase their spending,” Minh said.

The MPI report showed that total goods and service retail increased 23.1 percent in the January-October period.

The report also shows that 64,000 private businesses with total registered capital of 400 trillion dong were licensed in the first 10 months. The report, however, did not mention the number of enterprises that went bust in the ten months nationwide.

Regarding the dark side, Hanoi City’s Tu revealed that 2,800 enterprises had closed down in the ten months, adding the capital authorities estimated 5,000 businesses would go bankrupt by the end of the year.

Minh from HCM City added that 1,663 private businesses had gone bust in the ten months compared with over 22,400 others that were licensed.

Hanoi and HCM City have 120,000 and 170,000 enterprises, respectively.

According to a survey conducted by the General Statistical Office among 4,273 enter prises nationwide, the number of jobs reduced by only 0.7 percent compared with the same period last year.

The Office’s Lam said that “unemployment problem in Vietnam is not worrying because jobless employees can find new jobs as they are very adaptable.”

The positive views shared at the meeting on Wednesday were not in tune with negative assessment of the National Assembly, international donors and the country’s economists.

Some even said that Vietnam’s economy in 2011 was the worse since 1991. Vietnam’s inflation is the highest in Asia, according to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
Saigon Time Daily

Tags: Vietnam economic, Vietnam economic growth, Vietnam economy, Vietnam economy 2011