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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (R) and head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s 2024 Article IV Mission to Vietnam Paulo Medas. (Photo: VNA) |
The government leader highly appreciated the IMF's valuable assessments, forecasts and recommendations regarding Vietnam's economic situation for 2024, as well as the prospects and risks for 2025. He affirmed that the IMF's views are critical for Vietnam in formulating macroeconomic management policies.
According to the PM, despite substantial external pressures, Vietnam has achieved significant socio-economic results, especially in public investment, foreign direct investment (FDI), state budget revenue, monetary and fiscal policies, and foreign trade.
The Vietnamese Government is taking suitable policy response, prioritising growth, and boosting production, and business activities, he said, adding efforts are also being made to reduce lending interest rates, issue bonds for strategic infrastructure projects, and provide tax and fee reductions for businesses, as well as well managing exchange rates, controlling inflation, ensuring food and energy supply, diversifying markets, and building financial centres.
The leader reaffirmed Vietnam’s commitment to restructuring the economy with a focus on rapid and sustainable growth driven by science, technology, and innovation. The Vietnamese Government aims to enhance labour productivity, pursue three key breakthroughs in institutions, infrastructure, and human resources; remove institutional barriers to mobilise development resources; renew traditional growth drivers and promote new ones for higher growth targets in the coming decades.
Appreciating the practical and effective cooperation between Vietnam and the IMF, including the valuable recommendations from the IMF’s Article IV Mission, PM Pham Minh Chinh called on the organisation to continue macroeconomic policy advice for and dialogues with Vietnam in the coming time.
For his part, Medas stressed that the IMF recognises Vietnam’s impressive development achievements over the past years, despite various global shocks. He commended Vietnam for its strong performance in 2024, noting that the country is among the fastest-growing economies in the world, with robust exports and strong foreign investment inflows.
He highlighted the effectiveness of Vietnam's macroeconomic management, especially in keeping inflation within targeted levels, which has contributed to Vietnam’s impressive growth compared to the rest of the world.
However, the official noted that Vietnam still faces significant external challenges, such as the rising trend of protectionism which could negatively affect the global economy, and various uncertainties in financial markets that may expose emerging economies to greater risks.
Medas further said that investors are very interested in Vietnam, particularly the country’s bond market. He suggested Vietnam has considerable fiscal space to support economic growth and recommended the country to continue to proactively manage external risks, strengthen the capacity, stability and soundness of its banking system and capital markets.
Vietnam should continue economic reforms to boost productivity, ensure long-term, sustainable growth, and well control risks, he said, stressed the importance of creating a favourable environment for investors. He also assured that the IMF would continue to assist Vietnam in its economic development efforts./.