Over half of Vietnam’s construction firms see positive outlook in third quarter

An estimated 57.3% of Vietnamese construction companies expect a stable or improved business outlook in the third quarter of 2018, according to a survey by the General Statistics Office.

State-owned construction enterprises are more optimistic about the business outlook.
State-owned construction enterprises are more optimistic about the business outlook.

Meanwhile 39.6% of the surveyed firms stated that their outlook would worsen in the July to September period.

State-owned enterprises are more optimistic as 60.2% of them see the prospects in the third quarter to be stable or more favourable than the second quarter.

Other sectors are less upbeat with the ratio of private construction companies expecting stable or better conditions falling to 57.4% from 61.1%, recorded in the previous quarterly survey.

The ratio for the foreign-invested sector is 56.1%, down from 57.7% in the previous three months.

Concerning business costs, 48.6% of respondents stated that their total costs for construction activities in the third quarter would either remain unchanged or go down, while 51.4% expected their costs to go up.

The survey was carried out on more than 5,300 construction companies in all of Vietnam’s 63 provinces and centrally-governed cities.