Vietnam’s growth forecast to outperform regional peers, expanding by 4.1%

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has lowered its growth forecast for Vietnam in 2020 to 4.1%, but the country will remain one of the best-performing economies in Southeast Asia, which is expected to shrink overall by 2.7% due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Vietnam remains one of the best-performing economies in Asia despite the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.
Vietnam remains one of the best-performing economies in Asia despite the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.

In April the bank forecast that Vietnam’s economic growth will slow to 4.8% this year as the coronavirus disrupts global supply chains and slashes demand from its main trading partners.

The latest update was released on June 18 as measures to contain the virus are hampering economic activity around the globe.

Developing Asia will barely grow in 2020, with a projection of just 0.1%, down from the 2.2% forecast in April and the slowest pace for the region since 1961, according to the ADB.

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam will be the fastest growing economy as other countries see sharp slowdowns, with Thailand and the Philippines contracting by 6.5% and 3.8% respectively.

Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, is expected to shrink by 1% in 2020.

Regional growth is expected to rebound to 5.2% in 2021.

The Vietnamese government is considering revising its growth target for 2020 to 4.5% from an initial goal of 6.8%, which it said is practically impossible to achieve due to the coronavirus.