The remark was made in the World Banks’ latest update on the developing economies in the Asia-Pacific region, released on October 4.
The World Bank states that, despite resilient growth momentum, the Vietnamese government should continue to reinforce macroeconomic stability and rebuild policy buffers as its foremost priority.
Lowering the budget deficit would help to contain the rising risks to fiscal sustainability and provide fiscal space to accommodate potential future shocks, the Bank recommended.
Meanwhile, containing the risks from rapid credit growth requires continued improvements in supervision and prudential regulation.
According to the World Bank, the longer-term challenge for Vietnam is to sustain its rapid growth and poverty reduction.
Considerable gains are possible from structural reforms that ease the constraints on productivity growth, including through SOE reforms, further improvements in the business environment and more efficient factor markets for land and capital.
Last week, the Asian Development Bank also put Vietnam’s growth in 2017 at 6.3%, down from the 6.5% projection made in an earlier report, citing weaker than expected growth in the first half of 2017.
But Vietnam’s economy has since strengthened, with the GDP growth in the third quarter accelerating to 7.46%, helping the overall growth in the first nine months of the year to reach 6.41%.
The General Statistics Office estimates that the growth rate in the final three months of 2017 must be at least 7.31% if Vietnam is to meet its full-year target of 6.7%.
