Vietnam’s GDP growth hits 12-year high of 8.02%

Vietnam's economy expanded by 8.02% in 2022, much higher than the 2.58% recorded last year during the height of the pandemic, the General Statistics Office announced Thursday.

“This is the fastest growth recorded from 2011-2022,” GSO chief Nguyen Thi Huong told a press briefing in Hanoi.

The performance is also higher than the government’s official target of 6.0%-6.5%.

Vietnam has secured a trade surplus value of $11.2 billion this year. The country’s total export was estimated at $371.85 billion, up 10.6% year-on-year.

Notably, 46 export items topped $1 billion each. Vietnam continues to be a key manufacturer of products like electronics, textiles, footwear, and aqua products for big-name international brands.

The country’s 2022 total import spending was around $360.65 billion, up 8.4% over last year.

Vietnam’s retail sales rose 19.8% to almost VND5,680 trillion (nearly $240 billion), the GSO said. The consumer price index increased by 3.15% year-on-year, while average core inflation in 2022 rose 2.59%, lower than the CPI increase. This reflected fluctuations in consumer prices mainly due to higher costs of food, gasoline, oil, and gas, the agency noted.

Vietnam’s 2022 GDP per capita has been estimated at VND95.6 million, equal to $4,110, an increase of $393 compared to last year.

HSBC last week had predicted Vietnam’s economy would expand 8.1% this year and slow down to 5.8% in 2023.

The global bank, in its latest "Asian Economics Quarterly - Retooling Factory Asia" report, says Vietnam faces upcoming risks of trade headwinds amid global slowdown and stronger inflationary pressures.

Disbursed foreign direct investment capital in Vietnam rose 13.5% year-on-year to $22.4 billion in the year to December 20, a record high, while newly-registered capital declined by over 18% to $12.45 billion.