On July 3, 2023, at the headquarters of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha had a meeting with Mr. Wempi Saputra, Executive Director of the World Bank (WB) Office of Executive Director for the Southeast Asia (SEA) Group.
Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha speaks at the meeting
At the meeting, Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha briefed the guests of Vietnam’s macro-economic situation in the first half of 2023. The SBV Deputy Governor shared that, in the context of unprecedented developments in the world economy, the Government of Vietnam, the Ministries and agencies have assessed that 2023 would be a year full of difficulties and challenges to Vietnam’s economy.
There have been unfavorable developments since the beginning of 2023, such as a declining economic growth (according to the latest statistics from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO), the GDP growth in the second quarter of 2023 was estimated to increase by 4.14% as compared to that of the same period of 2022, and 3.32% higher compared with that of the first quarter of 2023 thanks to the recovery of the service sectors; the GDP growth in the first half of 2023 increased by 3.72% in comparison with that of the same period of 2022), with decreases in the fields of industrial production, export and import volumes, and FDI. The SBV Deputy Governor also mentioned the difficulties caused by the unfavorable developments in the real estate and the corporate bond markets.
An overview of the meeting
However, on the positive side, the pressures on the domestic inflation had partly reduced with the average CPI for the first half of 2023 increased by just 3.29% as compared to that of the same period of 2022; the core inflation increased by 4.7%, higher than the average CPI increase. Being aware of the difficulties and challenges that may cause negative impacts on the economy, the Government of Vietnam, the Ministries and agencies have been actively conducting various measures to resolve the difficulties for the enterprises and the people, remove the obstacles in the real estate market and the corporate bond market; accelerate the public investment disbursement in order to create a momentum for the economic growth.
Mr. Wempi Saputra, Executive Director of the World Bank Office of Executive Director for the South East Asia Group, speaks at the meeting
For his part, Mr. Wempi Saputra, Executive Director of the WB Office of Executive Director for the South East Asia Group, made high evaluation for the encouraging results that Vietnam has obtained over the past time. Mr. Wempi Saputra also asserted that his Office would continue to support Vietnam in the years to come. Besides, the Executive Director of the WB Office of Executive Director for the South East Asia Group also shared about the changes in the WB’s operational model in the coming time and the key results in the cooperation activities between the WB and the countries in the region. He specially emphasized the challenges related to climate change, the energy transition, and the internal changes in the economies in order to respond to the external macro impacts such as diseases, the global inflation hikes, food insecurity, etc.
Toward the end of the meeting, Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha expressed his hope that Vietnam would continue to receive the strong support from the WB and the Office of Executive Director for the South East Asia Group in order to realize the established objectives. The two sides also agreed to further cooperate closely to exchange, update information, and come up with practical and effective cooperative activities to support the economic growth in Vietnam, as well as to enhance the role of the WB Office of Executive Director for the South East Asia Group in the future.
Le Hang