Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính at the regular government meeting on Wednesday. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính stressed the need to ensure the stability of the macro-economy, markets, politics, and people’s material and spiritual life while chairing the regular Government meeting on Wednesday.

He also urged intensifying preventive and grassroots health care and vaccinations, adding that greater efforts are needed to step up production, business, and public investment disbursement.

Unnecessary spending must be cut and the administration done concertedly and smoothly, the leader emphasised.

Chính pointed out uncertainties in the first seven months of this year, such as the conflict in Ukraine, soaring oil and gas prices, high inflation in many countries, and epidemics.

But he did note that the domestic economy has shown limited resilience to external shocks.

Among pending problems were inflation pressure and risk, price fluctuations and low public investment disbursement, he said, adding that some socio-economic recovery and development targets have yet to meet expectations.

Chính said that although the world and regional situations were developing complicated and unpredicted, which greatly affected the domestic socio-economic performance, the results Việt Nam achieved in July and the first seven months of this year were very positive, which were reflected through socio-economic indicators.

"In general, the macro-economy is stable, major balances are ensured, inflation is controlled, creating confidence and an important foundation for further recovery and sustainable socio-economic development," Chính said.

According to the Prime Minister, many prestigious international organisations and experts have highly appreciated Việt Nam's achievements and development prospects. 

For example, Standard Chartered bank forecasts that Việt Nam's GDP will increase by 10.8 per cent in the third quarter and 3.9 per cent in the fourth quarter, reaching 6.7 per cent for the whole year; VinaCapital Fund forecasts that GDP in the third quarter will increase by 10 per cent and 7.5 per cent for the whole of 2022.

HSBC raised its growth forecast for Việt Nam in 2022 to 6.9 per cent, replacing the previous rate of 6.6 per cent; ADB maintains the country's growth rate at 6.5 per cent this year and 6.7 per cent next year.

The PM said the results were thanks to the leadership of the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, headed by General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng, and the resolutions of the National Assembly. 

Efforts of the whole political system and the business community, the consensus and support of the people and international friends contributed to the great achievements, Chính said.

He asked ministries, branches and localities to focus on implementing socio-economic recovery and development programmes, renovate the economic structure and growth models, improve the resilience of the economy, and attach importance to cultural development and environmental protection.

It was also necessary to strengthen national defence and security; promote foreign affairs; consistently implement the Party's foreign policy; build an independent and self-reliant economy; and strengthen information and communication work to create motivation, trust and inspiration for the people as well as remove distorted, toxic information.

A footwear factory in HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo

​Recovery

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Việt Nam has seen a stable macro-economy, controlled inflation and ensured major balances. Monetary market was basically stable, with credit increasing by 9.42 per cent, interest rates/exchange rates remaining reasonable. 

Consumer Prices Index (CPI) in July increased by 0.4 per cent compared to the previous month, and increased by 3.14 per cent over the same period last year. The average CPI in the first seven months of this year increased by 2.54 per cent. State budget revenue in the seven months was estimated at 77.5 per cent of the target, up 18.1 per cent over the same period last year.

Industrial production continued to recover with the index of industrial production (IIP) in July increasing by 1.6 per cent over the previous month, up 11.2 per cent over the same period. The IIP for the first seven months increased by 8.8 per cent compared with that of the corresponding period last year.

Out of 63 provinces and cities, 61 saw an increase in the seven-month industrial index. Imports and exports in July increased by 6.1 per cent year on year.

In the first seven months of this year, Việt Nam saw export revenue of US$216.35 billion (up 16,1 per cent) and import revenue of $215.59 billion (up 13.6 per cent), trade surplus was $764 million.

International visitors in July reached 352,600 arrivals, up 49 per cent over the previous month. The number of foreign arrivals in the first seven months of this year is 10 times higher than the same period in 2021.

The number of newly registered enterprises in July was 13,200, raising the total number of firms established in the first seven months to 89,400, up 17.9 per cent over the same period last year. 

The disbursement of State budget in July reached VNĐ46.2 trillion, up 22.5 per cent year on year. 

According to the Ministry of Health, in the first seven months of 2022, the whole country recorded more than nine million COVID-19 cases, more than 8.5 million people recovered from the disease, and nearly 11,000 deaths. 

Particularly in July 2022, the whole country recorded more than 33,000 cases and six deaths relating to COVID-19. The average number of new cases now is 1,000 cases per day. Compared to the previous month, the number of cases increased by 22.4 per cent, the number of deaths decreased by two, the mortality rate was 0.02 per cent of total infections, which is much lower than the world average of approximately 1.2 per cent.

As for vaccinations, by the end of July, Việt Nam administered more than 246 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and is one of the countries with the highest number of administered doses and biggest vaccine coverage rate in the world as recognised by WHO. 

Notably, vaccination progress has tended to increase again recently. In the second half of July 2022, the whole country deployed more than 7.7 million doses of vaccine, an increase of 34 per cent compared to the first half of July 2022. — VNS