Economic growth at 5.14 percent in first nine months

September 25, 2013 | 15:42

(0) user say

The Ministry of Planning and Investment on September 24 announced that economic growth in the first nine months of this year was estimated at 5.14 percent.

Industrial and construction sector surges 5.02 percent in the first nine months of 2013. (Photo: SGGP)

Of which, agro-forestry-aqua sector rose 2.39 percent; industrial and construction sector surged 5.02 percent; and services sector jumped 6.25 percent.

Although gross domestic product growth rate posted increase each quarter, many forecasts said that economic growth will hardly reach the target of 5.5 percent this year. In the latest forecast by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the country’s economic growth will possibly touch 5.4 percent this year.

The ministry estimated that trade gap was at around US$124 million in the first nine months of 2013, accounting for 0.1 percent of total export turnover, much lower than assigned target of 7-8 percent.

On the same day, the General Statistics Office announced that the country’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.06 percent in September compared to the previous month, the third time this year that CPI of a month posted an increase above 1 percent.

However, same as August, increase in CPI this month was also affected by administrative decisions, particularly, rise in tuitions for education in some cities and provinces. If excluding tuition rise, the country’s CPI only climbed 0.52 percent over last month.

In addition, the application of new basic salary in healthcare insurance, starting from September 1 this year, also made goods and other services advance 1.33 percent compared to the previous month.

Thus, the country’s CPI in September hiked 4.63 percent compared to December last year, and 6.3 percent over September last year. If leaving out tuition and healthcare service, after nine months, CPI merely increased 3.7 percent compared to December last year and 5.4 percent compared to the same month last year.

SGGP

What the stars mean:

★ Poor ★ ★ Promising ★★★ Good ★★★★ Very good ★★★★★ Exceptional