The UK’s Financial Times (FT) has published an article on positive signals in the Vietnamese economy, such as a better consumer price index, falling inflation, and a more consistent monetary policy.
The newspaper said that May 24 data on inflation showed the first single digit increase in almost two years and year-on-year price rises dropped from 10.5 percent in April to 8.5 percent in May.
“Prices have now been flat month-on-month for two months in a row,” said the article.
The FT reported that HSBC thinks cuts in interest rates could come in the next two weeks, which helped prompt a 1.6 percent rally in Vietnamese shares on May 25.
It also mentioned an apparently shrinking trade deficit as exports surged by 22 percent in April, but imports grew just 4.4 percent.
Dragon Capital, a Vietnam-focused investment company, said in a note that Vietnam’s recent economic success is not merely a ‘flash in the pan’, but heralds an economy successfully transforming from a ‘frontier market’ into an ‘emerging’ one.
Vietnam has shone this year on the equity front, up nearly 25 percent. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese dong has risen by nearly one percent.
The paper cited Min-Hwa Hu Kupfer, chair of Vietnam Holding, as saying that the prospects for investors look better as the State Bank of Vietnam is developing a more consistent monetary policy under its new governor, Nguyen Van Binh.
(VOV)
