Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc chairs the Government's meeting on Friday.  —VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

Việt Nam’s economic indicators in September and the third quarter witnessed growth, showing confidence in positive development for the whole year, attendees heard at a Government meeting on Friday.

With economic growth of 2.62 per cent in the third quarter, we can affirm that our country’s growth rate in the whole year will be positive, reaching 2 per cent or more. This is a major effort in the context that many countries in the region faced declining economies, said Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.

“The dual targets of maintaining economic growth and containing the pandemic have been strictly implemented and have witnessed good results,” he said.

Strong growth was recorded in important sectors like agriculture, industry and trade, banking, finance and social security, laying a foundation for growth in the fourth quarter and the whole year.

In particular, Việt Nam’s trade surplus in the third quarter reached a record of more than US$17 billion despite limited imports. Although attracting foreign investment faced difficulties, foreign investment reached more than US$21 billion thanks to appropriate mechanisms.

The Cabinet leader noted that Việt Nam “has recovered its growth in the context of a global economic recession”. The country’s export growth was attributed to domestic enterprises instead of foreign direct investment like before. Domestic enterprises contributed more than 20 per cent of the export growth.

The agricultural sector exceeded the export rate of more than $41 billion, with many processing factories, agricultural products and especially the efficient and timely implementation of the EU-Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

The PM highlighted the important role of agriculture, contributing to the general growth.

With productivity increase of 900kg per hectare on average, Vietnamese farmers nationwide had bumper crops with many products witnessing high growth rate such as litchi and cashew.

The disbursement of public investment was nearly 60 per cent, the highest ever level. State-owned, private and FDI sectors became significant driving forces to boost growth, create employment and increase incomes for employees.

PM Phúc said despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nikkei Vietnam Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose from 45.7 points in August to 52.2 in September, which clearly demonstrated the recovery of the Vietnamese economy with the highest growth rate among ASEAN countries. This shows the determination of the Government and localities to promote the development of production, business and services.

Regarding a number of shortcomings, the PM said that many sectors still faced difficulties such as services, especially tourism, aviation and transportation. The current growth rate was very low compared with the potential and expectation.

He asked Government members to propose solutions to accelerate growth and promote digital transformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.