Published Date: 13/04/2015
GDP grew sharply in Q1 at 6.03% yoy, mainly thanks to industry and construction area. The production conditions also improved during the past 19 months with PMI stood at 50.7 points in March. March CPI increased slightly thanks to high domestic demand after decreasing in four consecutive months. Higher trade deficit have partly pressured on the VND/USD exchange rate recently.· Retail sales of goods in Q1 edged up to VND790.8 trillion, increasing by 9.2% M/M and higher than the same figure in Q1 last year at 5.1% Y/Y;
· The PMI is expected to improve in April because manufacturing become more active after festival season in Q1;
· Export value in the first 3 months of 2015 reached USD 35.7 billion, increasing 6.9% YoY. Meanwhile, demand for imports in Q1 was large, rising for machineries and input materials for manufacturing, reaching about USD 37.5 billion, 16.3% higher Y/Y;
· Registered FDI dropped as lacking big size projects while disbursed FDI surged in Q1 2015;
· The VND/USD exchange rate rose steeply since March. After the SBV’s announcement about keeping the forex rate stable, the VND/USD still go up closely to the ceiling;
· The SBV continued to net withdrew money considerably via bills and repos in March;
· Bond market remained gloomy in March as bond demand declined considerably compared to the first two months this year. In Q1, about VND 55.9 trillion of VGBs were issued successfully, completing 80% of the plan in Q1.
VietNamOutlookApr 2015.pdf
