Vietnam Q1 GDP growth slows as weak demand hits exports

HANOI   – Vietnam’s economic growth in the first quarter slowed to 3.32 percent from an expansion of 5.05 percent in the same period last year, government data released on Wednesday showed, as its exports fell sharply.

The Southeast Asian country, a regional manufacturing hub, reported a 11.9- percent year-on-year fall in its exports in the January-March period due to weakening global demand.

Shipments of smartphones, the country’s largest export earner, fell 15 percent to $13 billion in the first quarter, while electronics shipments fell 10.9 percent, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said in a report.

Industrial production in the first quarter fell 2.3 percent from a year earlier, while total domestic retail sales of goods and services rose 13.9 percent, the GSO said.

Consumer prices in March fell 0.23 percent from February, the GSO said. Average consumer prices in the first quarter rose 4.18 percent from a year earlier.

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