Vietnam economy grows at 8.4pc this year

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HANOI, Dec 24 (AFP): Vietnam's economy grew at about 8.4 per cent this year, but inflation rose even faster, with prices shooting up 12.6 per cent in 2007, state media quoted the communist government as saying today.
The economic growth estimate sets a new record for Vietnam, which joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at the start of the year, Planning and Investment Minister Vo Hong Phuc told a cabinet meeting, state media said.
Foreign direct investment pledges leapt to over 20 billion dollars for the year, up from 12 billion dollars in 2006, Phuc said at the meeting Sunday according to the Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon) newspaper.
Export revenues-mainly from oil, textiles and footwear, electronics, seafood, rice and coffee-reached 48.3 billion dollars, but the trade deficit hit a new peak of 12.4 billion dollars, doubling last year's gap, it said.
Gross domestic product for 2007 will have expanded by an estimated 8.44 per cent, representing per capita GDP of 833 dollars for the year, the minister said, although he warned that the gap between the rich and poor was growing.
Vietnam-which has emerged in a generation from a war- shattered command economy into one of Asia's fastest growing economies-aims to become a middle-income nation, with annual per capita GDP of 1,000 dollars, by 2010.
Amid the rapid economic growth, strong capital inflows and higher world oil prices, the consumer price index shot up to a decade-high of 12.6 per cent, hurting the poor especially through higher food and fuel prices.
The cost of goods and services is set to spiral up another 1.8 per cent next month ahead of the traditional Tet lunar New Year celebrations in February, the country's main holiday, said Trade and Industry Minister Vu Huy Hoang.
Phuc said Vietnam created almost 1.7 million new jobs and sent 82,500 migrant labourers abroad in 2007. Recent media reports have said overseas Vietnamese remittances are now estimated at six billion dollars a year.
In tourism, billed as a promising growth sector, Vietnam received over four million foreign visitors, up 16.4 per cent year-on-year, the report said.
In foreign aid, international donors pledged a record 5.4 billion dollars official development assistance, about half of it for projects such as roads, ports and power generation, to ease Vietnam's economic bottlenecks.