Viet Nam may attain 2013 growth target
VGP - A UN agency has forecast that Viet Nam will achieve its GDP growth rate of 5.5% this year if the country successfully restores confidence in its stuttering economy.
In its recent survey, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) suggested that the country’s economic growth has slowed amid cyclical and structural challenges over the past few years.
Growth decelerated 5% last year, following rates of 5.9% in 2011 and 6.8% in 2010.
Weak growth is a result of the need to stabilize the economy and curb inflation, but is also a side-effect of heavy investment driven by State enterprises and the banking sector.
The UN organization hailed the Vietnamese Government’s efforts to stabilize the economy, rectify earlier expansionary policies, and control inflation from 18.7% in 2011 to 9.3% last year.
Inflation still remains high in health services, education and transport, leaving average households exposed to large price increases.
They also approved social measures recently introduced by the country, particularly its decision last year to raise health insurance subsidies for the poor from 50 percent to 70 percent as part of its efforts to achieve universal healthcare coverage by 2014./.
VGP/VNA
