GSO General Director Nguyen Bich Lam said that there were signs of GDP stagnation for several reasons, including changes in the world economic situation and negative impacts of unexpected weather, drought and saltwater intrusion in southern provinces, particularly in the Mekong Delta region.
The first six months saw industry and construction up 7.12% and services up 6.35%, contributing 2.41 and 2.38 percentage points to the 5.52% growth.
The value of the agro-forestry-fisheries sector dropped by 0.18%, including agriculture by 0.78%. It is also lower than recent years’ corresponding figures of 6.32%.
In the first half of 2016, the industrial sector grew at a slow pace (6.82%), compared to the 9.66% recorded in the same period of 2015. The slow increase was due to the 2.2% decrease in the value of the mining.
The first half of 2016 saw the highest growth rate of the service sector since 2012 with significant increase in some industries such as whole and retail sales (8.1%); finance, banking and insurance (6.1%); information and communication (8.76%); healthcare and social assistance activities (7.30%); arts and entertainment (7.20%); and education and training (7.15%).
Real estate increased 3.77%, the highest level over the past five years.
According to Lam, the National Assembly targeted GDP growth of 6.7% for the whole year; in order to reach this target, GDP in the second half must reach 7.6
