Vietnam’s gross domestic product rose nearly 4.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 over a year earlier on the back of higher exports, the south-east Asian nation’s statistics office reported on Monday.
The figure was below the 5.1 per cent forecast by the government as a Covid-19 cluster in northern Vietnam, around Hanoi, the capital, weighed on economic activity.
Overall exports for the January-March quarter rose to $77.3bn, up 22 per cent from a year earlier. The value of goods sold to the US rose almost 33 per cent year on year.
Analysts have long had doubts about the accuracy of Vietnam’s quarterly GDP figures, which are released before the end of the quarter.
“But growth is broadly consistent with the monthly figures for trade, industrial production and retail sales,” said Gareth Leather, senior Asia economist at Capital Economics.
