Vietnam’s economy witnessed strong growth in the first half of 2024. GDP growth rate increased to 6.42%, almost doubling the same period in 2023. Second quarter’s growth in 2024 accelerated to 6.93%, exceeding the first quarter’s pace by 1.06%. While the services sectors recorded a subtle drop of 0.11% compared to last year’s level for the first six months, improving industry and construction sectors, driven by increasing exports and foreign direct investment, have been the key growth contributor.
Industry and construction sectors have shown a significant rebound from last year with a growth rate surging by 6.69% YoY. The manufacturing sector expanded sharply towards the end of the second quarter, with the Vietnam Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) jumping to a record-high 54.7 in June since May 2022. This marked a third consecutive monthly improvement in the sector's health, signifying increasingly favorable conditions for factory activities and business operations.
Achievements in industry and construction sectors come as a result of strong export demand and performance as new export orders coming at one of the fastest rates since February 2022. Exports in H1 totaled US$190.08 billion, a 14.5% increase YoY with an overall boost in key export sectors, including electronics, computers and components (up 28.6%), phones and components (up 11.3%), and machinery and equipment (up 16.2%). Imports totaled US$178.45 billion, a 17% increase YoY, bringing the total trade surplus in the first half of 2024 to US$11.63 billion. The U.S. continued to be Vietnam’s largest export market, with exports rising 22.1% YoY to US$54.3 billion, while imports increased by 2.8% to US$7.1 billion. This resulted in a trade deficit of US$47.2 billion for the U.S. in the first half of 2024. China remained Vietnam’s largest import market, with goods imported from China valued at US$67 billion.
Resilient foreign investment inflows continued to play an important role in supporting Vietnam’s robust economic growth. Total registered FDI was US$15.2 billion in the first half of the year, up 13.1% YoY. Vietnam recorded a high number of 1,538 newly registered projects worth approximately US$9.54 billion, up 18.9% and 46.9% in value YoY. Among 84 countries and territories investing in Vietnam in the past 6 months, Singapore was the top investor with US$ 5.58 billion accounting for 36.7% of the total FDI and marking an increase of 86% YoY. China led in terms of the number of newly registered projects, making up 29.1% of the total.
Planning and Investment Minister Nguyen Chi Dung noted that if current growth momentum continues and accelerates, Vietnam’s economic growth rate might exceed the government-set 6.5% target and reach 7% this year. At the current rate, Vietnam will remain one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia.
