Vietnam’s 2024 GDP growth accelerates driven by strong exports By Reuters

Written by Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen

HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnam’s gross domestic product grew 7.09 percent last year to $476.3 billion, faster than the 5.05 percent growth in 2023, driven by strong exports and robust foreign investment inflows, government data showed on Monday.

The General Statistics Office said in a report that gross domestic product grew by 7.55% in the fourth quarter, the fastest quarterly growth in more than two years.

The Southeast Asian country, a regional manufacturing hub, benefited from a rebound in global consumption despite being severely affected by Asia’s strongest typhoon last year.

“This is a positive result amid difficulties including natural disasters and is a good basis for growth in 2025,” Nguyen Thi Huong, head of the Quality Supervision Bureau, said at a press conference after the report was released. Exports in 2024 grew by 14.3% compared to last year. The GSO report earlier said it reached $405.53 billion, led by shipments of electronics, smartphones, apparel and agricultural products.

Imports grew by 16.7% to $380.76 billion in 2024, resulting in a trade surplus of $24.77 billion.

The government has also helped increase coal imports for power generation to avoid a repeat of the electricity shortages of previous years, thanks to a strong rebound in growth in 2024.

Coal imports in 2024 rose by 24.8% compared to the previous year to 63.8 million metric tons, while electricity production during the year rose by 9.6% to 293.3 billion kilowatt-hours.

Foreign investment inflows to Vietnam rose by 9.4% last year to $25.35 billion.

Average consumer prices in 2024 rose by 3.63% while industrial production output rose by 8.4%.

Vietnam has set an official GDP growth target of 6.5% to 7.0% for this year. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said last month that Vietnam aims to achieve 8.0% growth.

“Looking to the future, Vietnam will actively monitor monetary policies, stabilize exchange rates, and closely monitor major trading partners to make timely policies,” Huong said.