GM Warburg Commercial - Vietnam's Economy Returns to Growth in Q3

SEOUL, South Korea, October 5, 2020 (Newswire.com) - The World Bank recently announced that the coronavirus pandemic is expected to result in Asia’s weakest growth in more than half a century. As many as 38 million people will be pushed back into poverty.

GM Warburg Commercial economists say the Asia Pacific region is expected to expand by just 0.9% this year, the weakest growth seen since 1967.

Challenges compounded by pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent measures put in place to curb the spread of infection led to a massive reduction in normal economic activity with each country’s domestic problems being exacerbated by the challenges caused by the pandemic.

Some countries have been more successful than others at containing their outbreaks. Despite being the original epicenter of the virus, China’s swift action and harsh containment measures meant that it was able to gain control of its outbreak quickly. Economic activity in China has been able to resume sooner than in other countries. China’s economy is expected to expand by 2 percent this year with a more optimistic forecast of around 7.9 percent growth for next year.

Another country in the region that is expected to report growth this year is Vietnam. Vietnam’s effective management of its own coronavirus outbreak has enabled the country to reopen and economic activity to restart.

Vietnam’s economic recovery led to a 2.62 percent growth in GDP in during the period from July to September this year.

“Vietnam’s third quarter growth was a significant improvement on the previous quarter’s 0.39 percent growth and this was largely thanks to a boost in exports,” said Harry Woods, Director of Private Clients at GM Warburg Commercial.

Vietnam exports rise

Vietnam’s exports increased 11% to reach $80 billion in the third quarter with waning demand for garments, cellphones and machine components being offset by a surge in demand for computers as much of the global workforce was forced to work remotely under varying degrees of lockdown.

“Vietnam’s economy has shown resilience despite Covid-19 and is expected to expand by 1.8% this year and bounce back even more next year,” said GM Warburg Commercial’s Director of Private Clients.

Source: GM Warburg Commercial