Strong growth for manufacturing and retail in Vietnam

HANOI - Vietnam is continuing to witness robust expansion of its manufacturing and retail sectors, coupled with a substantial trade surplus and steady FDI disbursement, according to the monthly update from Vietnam Asset Management (VAM). It says Vietnam’s macro-economic data continued to show encouraging results in April, with the manufacturing and retail sectors remaining major growth engines.

Notably, the PMI jumped to 52.7, up from 51.6 in March, displaying a sound monthly improvement supported by accelerated growth rates in output and new orders on stronger client demands in the manufacturing sector.

“Accordingly, Vietnamese manufacturers boosted their job creation rate in April, marking the 25th consecutive month of job growth,” VAM says.

“As for retail sector, April retail sales also picked up 9.5% YoY, leading to an increase in inflation-adjusted retail sales of 8.5% YoY for the first four months of 2018.

“This was partly driven by a 29.5% YoY surge in international tourist arrivals for the January–April period, besides domestic consumption.

“On the trade front, export turnover in April declined by 13.9% MoM largely due to fewer working days and Samsung’s latest flagship smartphones, Galaxy S9 and S9+, being exported mainly in March.

“Nonetheless, the first four-month period’s exports still climbed 19% YoY to reach US$73.76 billion, exceeding imports of US$70.37 billion (+10.1% YoY) and resulting in a YTD trade surplus of US$3.39 billion.”

VAM says that, while YTD registered and added FDI was still low (at approximately US$5.8 billion, down 37% YoY), realised FDI over January–April remained solid, amounting to US$5.1 billion (+6.3% YoY).  www.vietnamam.com (ATI).