HANOI (Bloomberg): Vietnam’s economy must grow at least 8.4% in the final quarter of the year if the nation is to meet the government’s 2025 target of more than 8% expansion, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said on Saturday.
Chinh, speaking at his monthly cabinet meeting, said the nation’s traditional economic drivers - attracting large-scale projects funded by foreign investments, exports and domestic consumption - are not meeting expectations, according to a post on the government’s website.
US tariffs have slowed exports, domestic consumption through October is lagging behind the government’s target of 12% for the year and the disbursement of public investment remains behind schedule, Chinh said.
The government is in advanced negotiations for trade agreements with South America’s Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, Chinh said.
"The goal is to ensure a balanced, reasonable, and effective relationship between growth and inflation, both in the short- and long-term,” he said, according to the statement. A "reasonable, flexible, and effective exchange rate and interest rates” are needed, as well as a stable domestic gold market, the prime minister said.
The government must accelerate infrastructure projects, including the completion of 3,245 kilometers of expressways, in the final months of the year, Chinh said.
Vietnam plans to sell 500 trillion dong ($19 billion) in government bonds by the end of the year, said Deputy Finance Minister Nguyen Duc Chi, according to a separate post. In 2024, Vietnam sold about 330 trillion dong in bonds, according to the Vietnam Bond Market Association.
The deputy minister said another 500 trillion dong in corporate bonds are expected to be issued by the end of 2025. That would be an increase from the 443.5 trillion dong in company bonds issued last year, according to the association.
Chi anticipates "strong growth” in the nation’s stock and bond markets in 2026, the statement said.
"We expect that in 2026, both the bond and stock markets will experience strong growth, meeting the capital needs of market participants and partially easing the reliance on commercial bank credit,” he said.
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