1. Overview of Vietnam’s economy - 2015 

GDP Growth

The country’s GDP was estimated to increase by 6.68% in 2015, higher than the planned target of 6.2% for 2015 and reaching a five-year high.

The agriculture, forestry and fishery sector rose 2.41%, lower than 2014’s growth rate of 3.44%, contributing 0.4 percentage points to the general growth rate. The industry and construction sector grew by 9.64%, higher than the previous year’s growth rate of 6.42%, contributing 3.20 percentage points, of which the industry went up by 9.39% against the previous year (the manufacturing rose 10.60%); the construction grew by 10.82%, topping the highest growth rate as from 2010. The service jumped up 6.33%, contributing 2.43 percentage points.

The GDP per capita was estimated at VN$45.7 million in 2015, equivalent to US$2,109, up by US$57 compared to 2014.

Agriculture, forestry and fishery - 2015

Rice production was estimated to reach 45.2 million tons, a rise of 240.9 thousand tons against 2014.

Cultivated area: 7.8 million hectares;

Rice productivity: 5,770 kilograms per hectare, up 20 kilograms per hectare.

Herd of livestock: (as of 01 October 2015) 2.5 million heads of water buffaloes, (up 0.1% on year); 5.4 million heads of bovine animal (up 2.5%); 27.7 million pigs (up 3.7%); 341.9 million fowls (up 4.3%).

Live-weight output of meat: 85.8 thousand tons of water buffalo meat, increased by 0.1%; 299.3 thousand tons of beef, up by 2.2%; 3.5 million tons of pork, by 4.2%; the output of achieved 908.1 thousand tons of poultry, up by 3.8%.

Estimated afforestation area: 240.6 thousand hectares, up 8.5% from 2014; wood production: 8,309 thousand cubic meters, up by 11.9%.

Estimated fishing production: 6549.7 thousand tons, rose 3.4% over the previous year, of which 3,513.4 thousand tons coming from aquaculture, up by 2.9%; and 3,036.3 thousand tons from marine fishing, up by 4%.

Industry

Industrial Production Indexes (IIP) was estimated to grow by 9.8% from 2014, higher than the increase of 5.9% in 2013 and 7.6% in 2014. The mining and quarrying went up by 6.5%; the manufacturing by 10.6%; the power generation and supply by 11.4%.

Main industrial products – 2015

	unit	2015	Change (%) vs 2014
Coal (pure)	‘000 tons	42339.3	105.1
Extracted crude oil	‘000 tons	16709.0	107.5
Natural gas	mln. m3	10660.0	104.6
Liquidized gas (LPG)	‘000 tons	728.2	115.7
Processed seafood	‘000 tons	2091.8	106.4
Fresh milk	mln. liters	1103.8	115.4
Powdered milk	‘000 tons	97.3	118.5
Refined sugar	‘000 tons	1599.6	99.7
Monosodium glutamate	‘000 tons	260.1	103.6
Feedstuff	‘000 tons	11771.3	116.5
Aquaculture feeds	‘000 tons	3517.5	114.0
Beer	mln. liters	3373.6	107.3
Cigarettes	mln. packets	5228.5	103.8
Textiles from natural yarn	mln m2	325.5	103.7
Textiles from PE or artificial yarn	mln m2	661.9	95.7
Garments	mln. pieces	3208.4	105.2
Footwear	mln. pairs	305.9	117.8
Urea fertilizer	‘000 tons	2208.4	100.2
N.P.K mixed fertilizer	‘000 tons	2538.3	98.5
Chemical paint	‘000 tons	594.8	110.4
Shampoo and hair conditioner	‘000 tons	64.1	101.1
Cement	mln. tons	67.9	110.7
Crude steel	‘000 tons	4127.0	103.3
Rolled steel	‘000 tons	4198.0	117.8
Steel, rods and angles	‘000 tons	4162.4	118.6
Mobile phones	mln. sets	227.3	131.6
Televisions	‘000 sets	5424.6	151.2
Automobiles	‘000 units	199.2	154.5
Motorbikes	‘000 units	2871.3	87.3
Electricity	bln. kwh	157.6	111.6
Water supply	mln. m3	2363.3	106.9

Number of start-up enterprises

94,754 start-up enterprises with a total registered capital of VN$601.5 trillion in 2015, an increase of 26.6% in the number of businesses and 39.1% in the registered capital against 2014

The average registered capital per enterprise in 2015: VN$6.3 billion, up 9.9% compared to the previous year.

Retail sales of consumer goods and services

Total estimated retail sales of consumer goods and services in 2015: VN$3242.9 trillion, up 9.5% compared to the previous year (if the price factor were excluded, the growth rate would be 8.4%, higher than 2014’s increase of 8.1%).

• Retail sales of goods: VN$2469.9 trillion, up 10.6%;
• Sales of accommodation and catering services: VN$372.2 trillion, up 5.2%; travelling VN$30.4 trillion, up 9.5%; other services VN$370.3 trillion, up 7%.

International visitors to Vietnam

Estimated number of international visitors to Vietnam: 7943.7 thousand arrivals, down 0.2% from the last year. Visitors coming by air increased by 0.8%; by road down by 6.5%; by sea sharply up by 27.5%.

Foreign direct investment

Up to 15 December 2015: 2,013 new FDI projects with the registered capital of US$ 15.58 billion, an increase of 26.8% in the number of projects and a decrease of 0.4% in the registered capital from the same period of 2014.

Total registered capital of new projects and additional investments: US$22.76 billion, up by 12.5% against 2014.

Disbursed FDI capital in 2015 was estimated at US$14.5 billion, up by 17.4% from the previous year.

Exports

Estimated export turnover in 2015: US$162.4 billion, up by 8.1% over 2014 (If the price factor were excluded, it would go up by 12.4%). Export turnover from the FDI sector were estimated at US$ 115.1 billion, up 13.8%; the domestic economic at US$ 47.3 billion, down 3.5%.

Structure of export goods: heavy industrial goods and minerals accounting for 45.5% of the total export turnover, up by 1.5 percentage points against 2014; light industrial goods and handicrafts accounting for 39.9%, up by 0.6 percentage points; agricultural and forestry products making up 10.5%, down by 1 percentage points while aquatic products representing 4.1%, down by 1.1 percentage points.

The United States remained the biggest export market for Vietnamese goods, making up 20.6% of the country’s total export turnover; the EU coming next with the proportion of 19%;

Imports

Estimated import expenditure in 2015: US$165.6 billion, up by 12% over the previous year, US$98 billion of which coming from the FDI sector (up by 16.4%), and US$67.6 billion from the domestic economic sector (up by 6.3%).

Structure of imported goods: machinery and equipment accounting for 91.3% of the country’s total import expenditure, increasing by 0.2 percentage points against 2014, while consumer goods making up 8.7%, down by 0.2 percentage points.

China was still the largest supplier to Vietnam with imports accounting for 28.8% of the country’s total import expenditure; South Korea coming next with 16.7%; ASEAN 14.4%.

Trade deficit: US$ 3.2 billion in 2015. The domestic economic sector suffered a trade deficit of US$ 20.3 billion whilst the FDI sector had a trade surplus of US$ 17.1 billion. It was noteworthy that estimated trade deficit with China was up to US$ 32.3 billion, up 12.5% from a year earlier; and after many years of trade surplus, Vietnam had a trade deficit of over US$ 300 million with Japan in 2015.

Exports and imports of services

Service exports: US$ 11.2 billion, up 2.1% over 2014, of which travel service export reaching US$ 7.3 billion, down 0.4%.

Estimated service imports in 2015: US$ 15.5 billion, up 6.9% over the previous year, of which transportation service and insurance service reaching US$ 9 billion. 

2015’s trade deficit of services was estimated at US$ 4.3 billion, up 16% from 2014.

Vietnam at a glance

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Population (million)	87.8	88.8	89.7	90.6	91.6
GDP per capita (USD)	1,373	1,754	1,894	2,032	2,036
GDP (USD bn)	121	156	170	184	186
Economic Growth (GDP, annual variation in %)	6.2	5.2	5.4	6.0	6.7
Industrial Production (annual variation in %)	13.5	4.8	5.9	7.5	9.8
Unemployment Rate	3.6	3.2	3.6	3.4	-
Inflation Rate (CPI, annual variation in %, eop)	18.1	6.8	6.0	1.8	0.6
Inflation Rate (CPI, annual variation in %)	18.7	9.1	6.6	4.1	0.6
Inflation (PPI, annual variation in %)	18.4	9.3	5.3	3.3	-0.3
Exchange Rate (vs USD)	21,034	20,840	21,095	21,388	22,485
Trade Balance (USD billion)	-8.9	2.0	0.4	0.8	-4.1
Exports (USD billion)	95.4	114	133	150	162
Imports (USD billion)	104	112	133	149	166
Exports (annual variation in %)	33.1	20.0	16.5	12.6	7.9
Imports (annual variation in %)	24.4	7.9	18.2	12.3	11.3

Top 10 exported commodities of Vietnam in 2015

	Major Products	Value (billion USD)	Compared to 2014 (%)
1	Telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof	30.18	27.9%
2	Textile and garment	22.81	9.1%
3	Computer, electrical products, spare parts and components thereof	15.61	36.5%
4	Footwear	12.01	16.3%
5	Machines, equipment, tools and instruments	8.17	11.7
6	Wood and wooden products	6.9	10.7%
7	Fishery products	6.57	-1.25%
8	Crude oil	3.72	-48.5%
9	Bags, pockets, wallets, suitcases, hats and umbrellas	2.88	13.5%
10	Rice	2.8	-4.5%

(Source: Vietnam Customs)

Vietnam’s exports and imports in 2015

Continent/market	Export		Import		Trade volume
	Value (billion USD)	Compared to  2014 (%)	Value (billion USD	Compared to 2014 (%)	Value (billion USD	Compared to 2014 (%)
Asia	79.88	5.4	135.02	11.1	214.90	8.9
ASEAN	18.16	-3.7	23.83	3.7	41.99	0.4
China	17.14	14.8	49.53	13.3	66.67	13.7
Japan	14.14	-3.8	14.37	11.2	28.51	3.2
S. Korea	8.93	25.0	27.63	27.0	36.56	26.5
America	41.51	17.4	13.91	22.6	55.42	18.6
United States	33.48	16.9	7.80	23.8	41.28	18.1
Europe	34.25	7.7	12.30	14.4	46.55	9.4
EU (27)	30.94	10.9	10.45	17.8	41.39	12.5
Africa	3.14	5.9	1.97	16.6	5.11	9.8
Oceania	3.33	-22.9	2.45	-4.9	5.79	-16.2

(Source: Vietnam Customs)

Top foreign investors in Vietnam - 2015

		Number of FDI projects injecting additional investment	Additional investment (million USD)	Total new and additional investments (million USD)
1	S. Korea	293	4,021.6	6.983.159
2	Malaysia	20	30.8	2.478.790
3	Japan	156	486.1	1.803.418
4	Taiwan	72	465.3	1.468.161
5	Samoa	12	81.1	1.395.176
6	United Kingdom	6	5.5	1.288.726
7	Singapore	66	862.9	2.082.472
8	British Virgin Islands	33	515.4	1.217.307
9	Hong Kong	54	566.7	1.148.139
10	China	35	69.3	744.115

Source: Foreign Investment Agency (FIA)

Top FDI provincial destinations in Vietnam - 2015

		Number of FDI projects injecting additional investment	Additional investment (million USD)	Total new and additional investments (million USD)
1	Ho Chi Minh City	191	1,117.5	4.100.2
2	Bac Ninh	107	3,512.5	3.663.0
3	Binh Duong	105	493.1	3.128.6
4	Tra Vinh		0.0	2.526.8
5	Dong Nai	92	332.9	1.805.1
6	Ha Noi	77	183.7	1.126.9
7	Hai Phong	38	248.6	902.7
8	Ba Ria – Vung Tau	22	432.1	759.7
9	Long An	47	268.4	651.8
10	Tay Ninh	8	25.3	540.6

Source: Foreign Investment Agency (FIA)

Helpful source

·General Statistics Office of Vietnam: Vietnam Development Report